The Process of Making: Five Parameters to Shape Buildings [1 ed.] 9783035613728, 9783035613612

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The Process of Making

The Process of Making Five Parameters to Shape Buildings Maki Kuwayama Joachim Käppeler

Birkhäuser Basel

Imprint Copy editing: Keonaona Petersen Project management: Nora Kempkens, Alexander Felix Production: Bettina Chang Layout: Hansjörg Brucklacher Paper: 90 g/m² Munken Print White, 1.5 Printing: Beltz Bad Langensalza GmbH Library of Congress Control Number: 2018951442 Bibliographic information published by the German National Library The German National Library lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data are available on the Internet at http://dnb.dnb.de. This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in other ways, and storage in databases. For any kind of use, permission of the copyright owner must be obtained. ISBN 978-3-0356-1361-2 e-ISBN (PDF) 978-3-0356-1372-8 © 2019 Birkhäuser Verlag GmbH, Basel P.O. Box 44, 4009 Basel, Switzerland Part of Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston 987654321 www.birkhauser.com

Content

Introduction Five Parameters

Case Study

7 1. Grid

How is it ordered?

16

2. Function

How is it used?

36

3. Detail

How is it made?

54

4. Materials

What is it made of?

82

5. Cost

How much does it cost?

House

102 131

Church

Vierzehnheiligen

158

Furniture

Patient Bed

194

Public Building

Landtag Baden-Württemberg

214

Farmhouse

Black Forest

248

Halls

A Short Evolution

274

Bridge

Salginatobel

306

Cultural Building

Glyndebourne Opera House

334

Cities

Urban Public Spaces

364

Conclusion

398

Bibliography

406

Image Credits

410

Introduction

Linear process

Nonlinear process

What Is a Process?

8

Process is an analytical word; it presupposes reflective observation. It starts with the question: How did A change to B? It is not linear, though descriptions are often linear in character. It is assumed that to get from A to B there are logical and consequential steps that make B the obvious outcome. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. The more factors that come into play, the less likely there is a single path. Introduction

To Make

Introduction

Unlike a process, making is active and nonreflective. Making requires hands-on action. It has physical movement as well as a physical result. There is thinking and planning involved in making, but only insofar as it is necessary to realize B.

9

Function

Grid

Detail

Materials

Process and Making

10

Costs

This is a reflection and analysis of how something is made. The main question is: What are the factors that influence the result? Manufacturers are concerned with optimizing their production process, with the assumption that the result is a product. However, before a product can be produced, it needs to be designed and developed; it needs to be created. Can we understand the process of creating? Architecture straddles the fine line between production and creation. Buildings are sitespecific and tailored to individual needs. This book is an attempt to explain the process of making with respect to architecture.

Introduction

How do I make this?

Who Is This For?

Introduction

Understanding the design process is important for anyone interested in thoughtful construction, be it of buildings, furniture, cities, or a product. The format of this book is for readers interested in buildings but who need the information to be accessible, not pages of long texts with specialized vocabulary. This is a picture book describing complicated themes in simple terms, relying on images and short descriptions. 11

Does it make sense?

Is it appropriate?

Why is it important?

Does it make my day-to-day life better?

Do We Need to Understand This, Even if We Don’t Create?

12

Does it change the way I live?

YES! Architecture surrounds us and affects us in ways that we often are unable to perceive. We cannot escape cities nor live without buildings, yet they spring up, and we react without really understanding what we are reacting to. To assign building design to style or taste or aesthetics is misleading and erroneous. Even more distressing is that those who should know are at times baffled by what is written about buildings, reducing architecture to a single seductive image.

Introduction

Introduction

Parameters

Case Studies

Conclusion

How Is the Book Organized?

There are two major parts to the book. The first part is composed of five essential factors that shape the decisions that form a building. There is no hierarchy or order of importance; each factor is equally important. In fact, if there is an imbalance, then the building in one form or another has failed. For example, it could be over budget or might not fulfill all the functional requirements; it might be built with inappropriate materials that require more maintenance; it might not be properly built or could have a difficult grid system that limits how the space is used. The art is to achieve a balance among these five factors.

Introduction

The second part is a series of case studies. The studies are of works in different scales and different time periods. These are placed in a historical or social context to make access easier, and then are followed by a more detailed architectural analysis. Complete books could be written about most of these case studies; these chapters are conceived as appetizers and not as fully researched documentation.

13

Content Matrix

Introduction

House

Grid

Function

Detail

Material

Cost

14

Church

Furniture

Public Building

Description of setting-out grid and construction system

Geometric setting-out grid and its variations

Proportion of a person resting

Strict building grid

What is a house? Description of a brief

Changes in Catholic church building policy due to the Reformation

Visual protection for the patient, easier for patient to lie down, easy to move and store

Responsive to political climate. Transparent spatial layout to parallel political clarity. Importance of plenum

Facade details. Energy concept

Placement of the altar. Importance of light. Role of craftsmen.

Construction elements

Relation to public and private spaces. Facade. Energy concerns

Limited palette of materials used for exterior and interior

Importance of “perfect” materials, resulting in scagliola, gold, frescoes, use of mirrors

Metal, wood, and upholstery

Glazing, marble, concrete, bronze

Logical construction phases, limited palette, and planned energy solutions

Use of internal resources from church-owned forests and quarries. Higher costs for specialized craftsmen

Despite being a bespoke item, simple manufacturing parts allow for a limited production run

Sustainable use of public funds

Introduction

Farmhouse

Halls

Bridge

Cultural Building

Cities

Determined by available materials and size of animals

Grid based on material

Based on structure and material

Radial geometry in plan

City’s grid determines public spaces. How to understand a city’s structure

Protection against elements and efficient maintenance

Large spans. Easy and fast to construct

Connect isolated communities to the rest of the world. Aim: modernization to prevent villages from dying out

High-level acoustics. Remaining true to original concept of intimacy between audience and stage

Level of city’s social and cultural development determines the need for public spaces

Services: maximal energy conservation. Structural free span. Optimal use of fire and heat

Relationship between construction and manufacturing. Focus on how elements connect. Easy to build

Innovative structural concept and construction method

Building as acoustic buffer. Detailing requiring skilled workforce. Relation between services and sound

How are spaces formed? Who determines the parameters? How are the parameters determined?

Thatch, wood, and some glazing

What is available and how quickly it can be used on-site

Reinforced concrete

Bricks, wood, concrete, and lead

Restricted by funding. Simple and available materials

Using what is available to create a selfsustaining environment that is cost-effective

Speed of construction

Effective costs due to innovation

Importance of keeping within budget and the luck of economic timing

Maximum use through minimum cost investment. Who funds the space, public or private?

Introduction

Conclusion

15

Parameter 1

Grid: How is it ordered?

We equate order with rules. Order tells us that within certain parameters we are free to do what we wish, but once we overstep ourselves, we have broken rules and disrupted order.

Grid: How is it ordered?

17

Life Cannot Escape Order

An example of order is time. There is the artificial time of clocks and calendars, which reflects the natural cycles of sunrise, sunset, and seasons. We define natural order through the artificial; 6:00 a.m. is morning or sunrise, December is winter, and so on. We cannot control time; we do, however, cheat natural time. We disrupt natural patterns of day and night with electric lights: when we should naturally be asleep, we are awake. We can control our own waking and sleeping intervals but succumb to biological order. At some point we need to sleep and follow a pattern or rhythm of life. Order in this sense is complex because there are more than one set of rules at play.

18

Grid: How is it ordered?

DNA, composed of an endless combination of adenine-thymine, cytosine-guanine bases, is the same in every person. Despite this each person is unique.

On a nonmolecular level, every hand has a similar skeletal framework yet each hand remains individual, where no two fingerprints are the same.

For example, each person has his own personal biological order. Our “setting-out grid” is our DNA. The double helix with basic four units of nucleotide bases define who we are. The combinations of how these four bases are matched and create a pattern determines our grid. Regardless of how much we inherit from previous generations, remarkably, each person remains an individual. Following a grid does not predetermine a result.

Grid: How is it ordered?

19

Kepler was Emperor Rudolf's Imperial Astronomer. Neglected by the emperor, Kepler produced a small treatise on snowflakes as a gift to remind him of unpaid dues. The inscription to the emperor was: “Here, indeed, was a most desirable New Year’s gift for the lover of Nothing, and one worthy as well of a mathemati-

Snowflake

20

cian (who has Nothing, and receives Nothing), since it descends from the sky and bears a likeness to the stars.”1 That “nothing” was a snowflake. Wilson Bentley's photographs from the early twentieth century illustrate what Kepler wrote in the early seventeenth century.

Forms in nature follow patterns and remain individual. In 1611 Johannes Kepler observed that all snowflakes have a unique hexagonal structure which is symmetrical in form. He was able to surmise that external conditions, wind, temperature, and humidity determine differences from one snowflake to another. Though they are similar in structure, no two are the same.

Grid: How is it ordered?

Square grid

Triangular grid

Circles in rows, with voids

Stacked circles in rows, smaller voids

Kepler's Hexagon

Grid: How is it ordered?

Three geometric shapes – triangle, square, and hexagon – when placed next to each other have no space loss. A circle, despite being the strongest geometric form, when placed in rows, has voids. When staggered, the void is reduced but still there. The void only disappears when a circle is compressed into a hexagon, a geometric form that shares the traits of a square (efficient volume), and of a circle (structural strength). 21

Kepler noticed that pomegranate seeds when pressed together in their shell, were packed to maximize the number of seeds and pressed to be as cube-like as possible.

This led him to wonder if he could create a platonic form based on a rhomboid, a slanted square that could be more sphere-like.

A rhombic dodecahedron, opened and flat. When constructed into three dimensions, the twelvesided form shares the characteristics of a square and has no space loss.

Kepler developed this concept further, moving from the planar hexagonal structure of snowflakes to spheres. He used an example of a greengrocer, who stacks his oranges in a pyramid and not in linear rows, to explain why a sphere when surrounded by six other spheres is volumetrically most efficient. Not surprisingly hexagonal structures are often found in nature. Nature could be said to follow a hexagonal grid.

22

Grid: How is it ordered?

Hexagonal grids in nature, regardless of scale:

Bee’s honeycomb

Scutes of a turtle’s carapace

Basalt columns, Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland

Grid: How is it ordered?

23

Plan

Section

Key: Centerline Coordinates Height levels

d +3.00 a

Section cut

Building Grid

24

If the world around us follows a grid, then it is no wonder that a building would, too. The setting-out grid in building plans defines the structure of a building. It helps to make construction plans clearer, gives a point of reference and a point of orientation. It is the fundamental ordering principle for built objects. The grid should be structurally sound, efficient, and cost-effective.

Grid: How is it ordered?

X–Y coordinates to give precise locations, a setting-out grid

Establishing a Grid

Grid: How is it ordered?

A building grid is the structural grid. The axis lines are the centerlines of structural columns, and the spacing in both the X and the Y axes determines what spans and heights a material is capable of without failure. This does not presuppose that a building grid is only based on a material’s structural strength. A grid can be based on other factors that influence how a building is designed. 25

?

?

?

? Determining a Grid: What is the Basic Unit?

26

What element or factor repeats itself in a building? What is the most basic unit? Once the basic unit is fixed, it is possible to set up the grid. This is not based purely on a material’s structural capabilities.

Grid: How is it ordered?

24 feet

One elevation bay from the Crystal Palace. The grid or module is not only found in the plan but also in elevation.

24 feet

Material as a Basic Unit Crystal Palace, 1851: Glass

Grid: How is it ordered?

The largest size of available glass was the basis for the structural module for the Crystal Palace. The structural grid measures 24 feet by 24 feet. This is subdivided into 24 feet by 8 feet. The subunits consist of rows of sheet glass that are 42 inches by 10 inches, each weighing 16 ounces, which at the time was the lightest available glass plate that could be supplied at the best price and highest quality. 27

400 cm

Lab tables Laboratory Room

640 cm Section sketch

Plan detail

640 cm

Function as a Basic Unit Tübingen University Chemistry Faculty, 1964

28

How a building is used and the repetitive nature of the elements needed can determine the grid format. A lab table was the most important piece of furniture for the Chemistry Faculty. The standard length was 8 meters. A standard configuration of one table/aisle/two tables/aisle/table had a total distance of 6.4 meters and was the basis for the building grid.2 The main function of the building, educating future chemists, determined the grid. Grid: How is it ordered?

21

a

34

5

3

13

1 2

a

b

Golden Ratio, Relationship of a+b is to a as a is to b

Divine Proportion as a Basic Unit

Aspirations to emulate or pay homage to the divine has provided the basis for a setting-out grid for centuries. The reasons are best described by Vitruvius in The Ten Books of Architecture, written circa 27 BC. “[S]ince nature has designed the human body so that its members are duly proportioned to the frame of the whole, it appears that the ancients had good reason for their rule, that in perfect buildings the different Grid: How is it ordered?

members must be in exact symmetrical relations to the whole general scheme.”3 “[I]n constructing temples of the immortal gods, have so arranged the members of the works that both the separate parts and the whole design may harmonize in their proportions and symmetry.”4

29

Vitruvian Man, 1492 Leonardo da Vinci

Le Modulor, 1942– 55 Le Corbusier

Divine Proportion: Timeless Grid

Basilica Santa Maria Novella, Florence Alberti, Facade, 1456–70

30

Parthenon, 438 BC

Grid: How is it ordered?

Icosahedron

Invention as a Basic Unit Zeiss Planetarium, 1922

Grid: How is it ordered?

Walter Bauersfeld’s Zeiss Planetarium was a prototype that has become the basis for planetariums. With Kepler’s comments on rhomboid structures in mind, Bauersfeld developed a dome using a hexagonal spherical grid, an icosahedron. The innovative structure provided a new way of representing the heavens, a structural system that would later lead the way to Buckminster Fuller’s work on geodesic domes. 31

a a+a

Human Scale as Basic Unit Tatami

Unlike Leonardo da Vinci’s idealized human proportions, the tatami is based on pragmatic considerations. It is large enough for a single person to lie on (alternatively, there is enough space to seat two), and it is portable for a single person to carry. The rice straw matting has a 1:2 ratio. The tatami is the basic unit and the planning grid for all traditional Japanese buildings.

32

Grid: How is it ordered?

Function

Details

Grid

Costs

Materials

In order to establish a grid, it is important to know how the building will be used, how much it should cost, which materials are available, and how it should be constructed. All these factors work together; though the grid is the setting-out point of the design, it is not the basis of the design. Having a perfect grid does not result in a perfect building. The grid does not stand alone: it is reliant on other factors. Grid: How is it ordered?

33

Footnotes

1. Johannes Kepler, The Six-Cornered Snowflake. Philadelphia: Paul Dry Books, 2010, 33. 2. Bauwelt 41 (1965): 1136–41. Theme: Naturwissenschaftliche Institute, Institut für physiologische Chemie der Universität Tübingen. 3. Vitruvius, The Ten Books on Architecture. Transl. M. H. Morgan. New York: Dover Publications, 1960, chapter 1§4. 4. Vitruvius, trans. Morgan, chapter 1.

34

Grid: How is it ordered?

Parameter 2

Function: How is it used?

Garage

Home Factory

? Apartments

School

Library

Shops

City hall

What is the Function of a Building?

Fire station

It is an apparently easy question to answer: a school is a building where teaching takes place; a house is a place where people live; an office building is a place for working; and so on. However, how a building is used is not always limited to one function. A building might be used for multiple purposes: houses with stores, community centers with libraries, manufacturing and corporate headquarters – the list is endless. When a building is defined not only by activity but on its symbolic value as a landmark, corporate identity, or prestige, then the function includes identity. How do we define function?

Function: How is it used?

37

Identity as Function: Choosing a Car

Given that a car’s primary function is a mode of transport, what other function could it have? Which car do we choose? The following questions might help: Economics: How much does it cost? Materials: How well is it made? Details: What are the extras? Functions: How big is it? How fast is it? Is it environmentally friendly? Does it fit to my image?

38

Function: How is it used?

Cost Size Power Top Speed Fuel Acceleration Energy Emission Image

€ 2500×1510×1520 mm 55 kW / 75 PS 145 km/hr Electricity 0 to 100 in 16.8 sec urbane energy- and budget-conscious

Cost Size Power Top Speed Fuel Acceleration Energy Emission Image

€€€€ 4491×1808×1296 mm 294 kW / 400 PS 299 km/hr Petrol 0 to 100 in 4.5 sec 9.9 l/100 km luxury sports car power speed

Cost Size Power Top Speed Fuel Acceleration Energy Emission Image

€€€ 4630×1777×1439 mm 135 kW / 184 PS 235 km/hr Diesel 0 to 100 in 7.2 sec 5 l/100 km family car practical reliable

Cost Size Power Top Speed Fuel Acceleration Energy Emission Image

€€ 4223×1873×1800 mm 147 kW / 200 PS 172 km/hr Diesel 0 to 100 in 11.1 sec 7.1 l/100 km off-road all-terrain action

Function: How is it used?

39

Tractatus de herbis (Italian herbal folio), thirteenth century

Jean Démosthène Dugourc, Figures in a Garden, Versailles, 1784

Claude Monet, The Japanese Footbridge and the Water Lily Pool, Giverny, 1899

Function Defined by Social and Cultural Zeitgeist

A garden is essentially an “unnatural” place where nature is subservient to human will. What is the function of a garden? A medieval herbal garden: a place to harvest herbs used for medicine and cooking. A Renaissance garden: a place laid out to reflect ideal harmonic beauty, with symbolic meaning represented by flora and foliage.

40

Function: How is it used?

Renaissance vegetable gardens of Château Villandry, sixteenth century

Palm House, Kew Gardens, 1848

Ryoanji, Kyoto, Zen garden, late fifteenth century

Seventeenth-century formal garden: a display of power. Landscape garden: nature improved, to be more “natural.” Botanical garden: a collection, laboratory, and library of living plants. Park: nature for the urban dweller. Japanese rock garden: a place for contemplation.

A garden is more than a “patch of green.” It shows the relationship of man to nature at a given point of time in history.

Function: How is it used?

41

1 Paint shop 2 Chassis over a bridge 3 Zigzag construction from top to bottom 4 Upholstry and leather 5 Engine 6 Original factory 7 Parts deliveries 8 Dealership

1

2 8

3 6 4 5 7

Function Subordinated by Site and Process

42

The original Porsche factory site is located in Zuffenhausen, Stuttgart, where their trademark sports car, the 911, is built. Despite high production costs, it was important for the manufacturers that the cars be produced on the original factory site, with a “Made in Germany” label. Production space is restricted by obsolete factory buildings and urban growth restrictions. Spatial limitations make it impossible to follow a modern linear production process. The solution is somewhat a kin to a marble run: the unfinished car moves from building to building with various parts meeting the production line at the necessary stage.

Function: How is it used?

There is no space for storage: parts shipped in by truck are used immediately. A system of logistical distribution using what the company calls “supermarket carts,” are automated to literally run through the various buildings to meet the car in specific production stages.

Chassis crosses the bridge

Chassis comes from paint shop Assembly line spirals down

Finished car goes to dealership

Up an elevator Parts meet car as needed

Parts cart

Deliveries

The car in various production stages dips into one building, crosses over a street on a conveyor-belt bridge, goes up and down internal elevators, and spirals down production tracks. Finally on the street level, the finished car is rolled to a dealership across the street, ready to be picked up by its new owner. Spatial function is defined by a production process fixed by site restrictions. Rather than creating a new building to meet the functional requirements for car production, the process itself was questioned and redefined, with the result that the buildings were adapted accordingly. Function: How is it used?

43

A page of a design brief outlines area requirements. The subsequent pages describe how the spaces are used, anticipated activities, and flow of movement. The descriptions help determine which areas belong together, spatial hierarchies, and circulation between spaces. This information, in addition to the client’s general expectations, form the body of a building brief.

Design Brief: Kindergarten in a Community Center Requirements in square meters* Room Description Main Entry Common Room Breakout Room Quiet Room Multipurpose Room with adjacent room Room for private meetings Staff Room Kitchen, with toddler platform Storage for each common room Laundry Room Changing Room, Staff WC/Handicap access/Shower/ Diaper Changing WC/6 toilets/6 basins Cleaner’s Closet Cloakroom Buggy Parking Services Room

Area dependent on design 40 m2 × 2 20 m2 × 2 20 m2 60 m2 15 m2 20 m2 25 m2 8 m2 × 2 10 m2 6 m2 5 m2 2 m2 8 to 12 m2

Page 2 of 8 * The areas not listed are left open to architect’s discretion, whatever is “leftover“ and fulfills legal requirements are considered ok. There are always blank areas in a brief.

How Function is Defined is Complex and Multilayered

44

A building’s function is often explained within a design brief, which gives a detailed account of how a building will be used. Briefs reveal that function is hierarchical, interlocked, and sometimes not as straightforward as we believe it to be.

Function: How is it used?

Worldwide: Product and goods

The Empire: Different cultures

Machinery and industry

Victorians

“Brief for the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations 1851”

The title of the brief alone is daunting, as was the expectation for the exhibition and the building it would be housed in. It was expected to represent the British Empire and to demonstrate the greatness of Britain’s global position. The brief stated the building should be a temporary structure built in Hyde Park, open for six months, large enough to house all the exhibitions, inexpensive to build, and be constructed within sixteen months. In addition, the Function: How is it used?

building should be dismantled at the end of six months and Hyde Park restored to its original state. To give an idea of the scale, the exhibition had 13,937 exhibitors: 7,381 from Britain and its Empire, with an additional 6,556 international contributors, for a total of 100,000 exhibits. The final area necessary was 991,857 square feet (92,157 square meters), an area of nearly thirteen football pitches.1 45

Letter to the Editors

Refreshments: No alcohol was sold. 1,092,337 bottles of soft drinks sold 934,691 Bath buns sold 870,027 plain buns sold Samples from the exhibition consumed: 500 lbs of snuff 250 lbs of tobacco 480 lbs of chocolate drops2

“I am a family man, and my better half and the four members of our interesting family yesterday paid a visited to the Exhibition, and after having surveyed the world from China to Peru, and from Land’s End to John o'Groats, we visited the refreshment rooms, for the purpose of recruiting exhausted nature. Like my namesake Richard, I would have given the kingdom for a glass of ale. Alas! the kingdom would not have bought it, and I was obliged out of sheer necessity to order six of what ‘Jaemes’ would call ‘Hices.’”.3

Additional Considerations to the Brief to Benefit the Public

46

“I fully sympathize with your correspondents who so bitterly complain of the want of refreshments at the Exhibition. I tried (like them) lollipops and the worst and smallest sandwiches I ever tasted… and a small vial of ‘eau de vie,’ which I flavor the excellent water which they procure in abundance, and I feel myself refreshed. This water is the only good thing to be got there. The coffee I have found always nearly cold and good for nothing; tea I have never yet seen; …Your correspondents complain of the ‘tenuity’ and dryness of the very dear sandwiches; but they should try the little, dry, sixpence dollops of pork pie.”4

Visitors could not saunter through and see the complete exhibition in a short period of time, so rest areas were included in the Brief. Located at the ends of the halls, the rest areas, or "cafés," had no provision for sitting or cooking, but instead were intended for a short rest. The three refreshment rooms were tucked away in the plan and nearly appear as an afterthought. They were, however, important for the flocks that came to see the exhibits. Function: How is it used?

Eastern Refreshment Room

1

Western Refreshment Room

2 2

3

3

2

Central Refreshment Room

4

3

1

3

3

1 2 3 4 5 6

1

4

Men’s WC Ladies’ WC Open court Retiring room Exhibitor’s retiring room Lecture rooms

5

6

Public Lavatories, the “Retiring Rooms”: A Unique Inclusion to the Brief

Function: How is it used?

The sheer size meant that visitors were likely to spend a whole day at the exhibition. With this in mind, the committee in charge included public lavatories, of which all were free, except those at the south exit.5 George Jennings, an ingenious plumber from Brighton, installed “monkey closets,” which were the first public flushing toilets. For one penny, users had access to a “clean seat, towel, a comb and received a shoe shine.” These rooms were found near the refreshment areas.6 Though still a simple brief, it also includes places for snacks and public facilities. A brief is not an abstract idea; it takes into account all the possible needs and activities that could take place. 47

Daidokoro, kitchen, a space between inside and outside.

Ofuro, the bathroom, a wet room used only for bathing. The tub is only used for soaking after one is clean.

Genkan, main entrance, where shoes are left, marking clearly what is inside and what is outside.

WC, a room traditionally seen as unclean, it requires a change of slippers.

A Continuously Changing Brief: Japanese House

The traditional Japanese house, despite its intimate scale, is functionally complex. The only spaces that have distinct functions are the entry (Genkan), the kitchen, bathroom, and toilet. The remaining spaces can be used for sleeping, dining, entertaining, working, or for whatever the current demand of the user might be. While the spaces have specific functional titles, the use of each room remains open to need.

48

Function: How is it used?

Katsura Imperial Villa, early seventeenth century Gray areas are verandas with wooden floors. Dashed lines indicate tatami. The dark jagged lines are shoji screens. On the periphery are toilets.

Flexibility is achieved in part by movable and partially removable shoji screens. In contrast to heavy masonry or timber walls that provide sound barriers, these screens provide only visual separation. Furniture is limited to pieces that are easily stored away. There is no permanent bed, only a futon, which can be folded away. Dining is not at a communal table but in a communal room, with each individual sitting on a cushion with his own portable tray.

morning as a bedroom, become a living room during the day, and in the evening be used as a dining room. This flexibility is achieved because the furniture or objects used are constantly put away and rearranged. How the room is used is dependent on the user and in turn requires the occupant to change it, with the result that one is in a continual process of cleaning up and rearranging.

The function of any given space undergoes multiple changes in any given time depending on the immediate needs of the inhabitant. A single space may start off the Function: How is it used?

49

Katsura Imperial Villa

50

In contrast to the Western definition of a house, a house in Japan is defined by its site boundaries. The garden is considered to be part of it. The modular building system, with undefined spatial interiors and hallway-verandas, allows the building to expand and contract as needed. A building that began with a few tatamis can enlarge and contract with the addition or subtraction of tatami rooms. Function: How is it used?

Atwood Celestial Sphere, 1913 Rotating globe

Bauersfeld’s Planetarium, 1922 (prototype) Rotating projector

Invention: Zeiss Planetarium

A planetarium is a theater to show celestial skies for educational or entertainment purposes. In the Gottrop Globe from the 1650s, the constellations were painted inside a sphere. By 1913 the Atwood Celestial Sphere caused a sensation by allowing visitors to experience the changing night sky while the globe rotated around them. The invention of cinema projectors led the way for a projector with a series of lenses to project stars moving in a stationary space. To create this illusion, the interior curved space had to be seamlessly white and thin enough for the holes drilled to beam out the light of the stars. The prototype planetarium as we currently know it was made on top of the Zeiss factory. The nature of invention created a challenging new function as well as new type of building form.

Function: How is it used?

51

To define what a building’s function is takes into account not only the intended purpose or use but also the aspiration of the user. To articulate this in formal terms, it is influenced in equal measure by how it is built, how much it costs, and the materials used. The function alone does not determine the design.

52

Function: How is it used?

Footnotes

1. Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith, The Great Exhibition of 1851. London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1950, 23. 2. “Victorian London: Food and Drink: Fast Food and Food Sold on Streets: Food Sold at the Crystal Palace,” The Dictionary of Victorian London. Accessed July 15, 2016, http://www. victorianlondon.org/food/crystalfood.htm. 3. Gibbs-Smith, 22. 4. Ibid., 21. 5. Anthony Bird, Paxton’s Palace. London: Cassell, 1976, 70. 6. “Spending Penny or First Public Flushing,” The Victorianist, February 2, 2011,http://thevictorianist.blogspot.de/ 2011/02/spending-penny-or-first-publicflushing.html.

Function: How is it used?

53

Parameter 3

Detail: How is it made?

How things are put together are found in three phases; planning, design, and construction details. Planning detail What happens and when? There is a general order of what happens on a construction site. Design detail Changes in scale, from where a fastening is necessary to how one space interacts with another. Construction detail How is it built?

Detail: How is it made?

55

juni

juli 7

6

3

2

1

28 30

29

26

25

24

27 23

22

19

18

17

26 16

15

12

9

25 11

8

5

4

3

24 2

1

29

28

27

23 26

25

22

21

20

22 19

18

15

14

13

8

21 12

7

6

20 5

4

1

30

29

19 28

27

24

23

22

21

29 28 22 21 31 30 27 26 25 24 23 20 19 18 12 11 10 17 16 15 14 13 123678945 20

18

10

mai

datum

11

monat kalenderwoche 17

ferien bauausführung bauherren-, nutzeraufgaben aus-, einbau geräte, maschinen aus-, einräumen bewegliches mobiliar

einbau maschinen einräumen geräte

kostengruppe 300 gerüstarbeiten mack gerüstbau abbruch, schadstoffsanierungsarb. rüdiger umw.tech.

bauuntern. rahm

sichtmauerwerk

schließen durchbrüche

trockenbau-, putzarb.

... wände schäfer trockenb. ... decken ... putz/gipskarton ullrich und schön ... türen westermann

sanitär

einbau deckenelemente

ergänzungen estrich belag parkett

... rückbau ... roh-, fertiginst. ... rückbau rüdiger umw.tech. ... roh-, fertiginst. tib-technik ... rückbau ... roh-, fertiginst. ... rückbau f&e elektrik ... roh-, fertiginst. wisag elektro

untergrund, belag lino

einbau belag

jalousien

einbau aussentür

anarb. türdurchbr. kanäle

einbau laservorhang anstrich, flies wände

anstrich zargen einbau ausstattung endreinigung

liebl kranbau

unterkonstr. kran

einbau kran fertiginstallation

rohinst. wasser, abw. in decken

kanäle oberhalb abgh. decke

kanäle unterhalb abgh. decke

messung beginn rückbauarbeiten bauarbeiten beginn vorbereitungsfertigstellung rückbau, arb. schadstoffsanierung

elektro, daten

einbau unterkonstruktion türzargen, türen

rohinst. wasser, abw. in decken

fertiginstallation decken-, brüstungskanäleverlegen leitungen

fertiginstallation

übergabe

lüftung

beplankung wände

einbau muster

ausbesserungsarbeiten vorsatzschalen

estricharbeiten riempp parkettlegearbeiten schanbacher park. bodenbelagsarbeiten rm bodenbelag schreiner zezelji/westermann stahlbau, metallbau, sonnensch. ikker metallbau maler engelbrecht ? aussstattung digestorien köttermann reinigung kostengruppe 400 kräne heizung

unterkonstruktion wände beplankung wände

fertigstellung

rohbauarbeiten

ausbau bodenbelag

vorbereitende arbeiten sanierungs, abbrucharbeiten rohbauarbeiten ausbauarbeiten bauzeit vorarbeiten nacharbeiten

Planning Detail

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A time plan illustrates phases of when and which construction stage starts on-site and how long it lasts. Synchronization is important to keep the project on schedule and within budget but also to assure that all parties are aware of other aspects of works on-site. Not only is it necessary for interface coordination but also to prevent accidents when more than one crew is on-site and so that each group knows when they must start and complete their work.

Detail: How is it made?

TC 100, originally manufactured by Rosenthal, was the diploma project of Nick Roericht, a graduate of the Hochschule für Gestaltung Ulm. The school was established in 1953 and closed in 1968. It was the most important postwar design school in Germany since the Bauhaus, with a focus on visual communication and

Design Detail

Detail: How is it made?

industrial design. The TC 100 is a classic example of the school’s pedagogical leanings and its consequential success. The dishware became part of MoMA’s design collection in 1962 as well as part of their cafeteria service ware.

Good design detail is described by its thoroughness. An example is the TC 100 dining service set. Originally a thesis project, the exercise was to create a thirty-piece set for use in cafeterias and canteens, especially in hospitals. The concept of stackability, in combination with a clear system for different sizes and types, helped to make the set easy to find and store. The product is robust and aesthetically modern and sleek. The separate pieces are multifunctional, interchangeable, and economically viable for production since the pieces are based on a modular design.

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From Planning, Construction, to Design Detail, all in a 7.5-centimeter figure There are 159 births per minute worldwide; there are 192 Playmobil people created per minute. Only 7.5 centimeters tall, with 4,600 different figures since 1974.

In Production: Playmobil Figures

That the miniature people were born during an economic crisis is evident in how they were planned. They are produced only in Malta, due to the simple fact that labor is 10 percent cheaper and the existence of government incentives for companies. Apart from reduced production costs, logistical costs were also lower. The figures are robust, made from high-quality plastic. They are made to be handed down from generation to generation. There have been no basic changes in the last forty years. They are timeless and conceived as a long-term product, which is ultimately environmentally friendly. Construction detail: they are com-

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prised of seven pieces, are 100 percent plastic, molded into a special form and are snapped together. Design detail: Construction simplicity does not deny the figures individual characteristics. For example, there are around 400 different hair styles, snapped on a head. The colors vary depending on profession or time period. The snap-on construction allows for a mix-and-match individualization of a character.

Detail: How is it made?

Scope of building materials on-site:1 Cast-iron column bases Cast-iron column shafts Cast-iron connections 24-foot cast-iron girders Other cast-iron components Wrought-iron items 48-inch × 24-inch glass panes Machined timber pieces Cubic feet of rough timber Construction rate:2 Number of columns erected per week in October Maximum number of columns erected in a week Cast-iron girders delivered to Euston Station in a day 24-foot girders delivered in one week Fabrication of wrought iron girders in a day 48-foot trusses erected in a day Number of minutes to erect one module

1,107 2,494 2,500 2,357 128,207 400,417 293,655 264,972 412,634 200 310 50 316 16 7 16

In Building: Crystal Palace, 1851 Planning Detail

Short construction time and a fixed budget resulted in a building process similar to manufacturing. Scheduling had to be planned in advance for the workflow on-site to be as efficient as possible. Molten iron cast as columns and girders arrived eighteen hours later to be erected on-site. Careful planning resulted in an uninterrupted flow of raw materials to building elements to shipment via railway directly on-site to a crew that was ready to construct on delivery. There was no storage or waiting on-site. This constant movement required excellent site supervision, without which there would have been a danger of accidents or injury. During the building of the Crystal Palace, no one was seriously injured Detail: How is it made?

on-site.3 Credit for this was due to the presence of the principals in charge: Joseph Paxton as designer, Charles Fox of the contractor Fox & Henderson, and the Chance brothers as the glazing manufacturers.

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Workers on-site:4 September 39 men October 419 men November 1,476 men December 2,260 men January 2,112 men

To keep the importance of site supervision in context, the work done was principally by men and horses. There was only one steam engine, responsible for woodworks. Considering the size, speed, and scope, which was exacerbated by the number of workers on-site and constant movement, it is amazing that there were no fatal accidents. In contrast, twenty-six workers were killed building the first Woodhead Tunnel of 1845, the longest tunnel to date with a length of 60

three miles. The tunnel was planned with 400 workers, but at its peak 1,500 were employed. Conditions on-site were so horrendous that during the boring of the second tunnel a few years later, twenty-eight workers died of cholera. In this context, completion was more important than safety of workers. Remarkably, the Crystal Palace site, through its careful planning and good supervision remained fatality-free. Detail: How is it made?

Wood used for perimeter fencing was not nailed in place, but stacked and held in place by two posts.5

Wood from perimeter fencing reused as floorboards with ½-inch spacing6 Wood floor board Small concrete blocks supporting floor joists

Crystal Palace 1851: Design Detail

An 8-foot-tall, timber palisade fence enclosed the 26-acre site to secure it. This was the first action on-site. The timber was later reused to make the joints and floorboards.The floorboards were additionally planned to have half-inch gaps where dirt could be swept into, conveniently by the long dresses of its female visitors, which helped to keep the floors clean.7 To provide more comfort, a canvas shading system covered the complete ridge-and-furrow roof Detail: How is it made?

area. Invisible from below, the shading provided ambient lighting and reduced glare.8 The canvas was bolted together and could be easily removed. Each detail worked to ease comfort, reduce additional costs for the investors, and provide simple maintenance; in addition, they aided in dismantling the hall at the end of the exhibition. 61

Based on drawings produced by Charles Downes and Charles Cooper in 1852: the mechanical workings of the louvers.

Exterior

Interior

Air flow: hot air rising

Air flow: cool air in

Louvers

Wheel to adjust louvers Exterior wooden frame

Crystal Palace 1851: Design Detail

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In principle, the building was a greenhouse. The greatest problem for visitors was overheating and lack of airflow, especially for a building open only during the summer. Louvers were designed at the foot of the building to allow for air circulation. Cool air rose from the floorboards to the side openings where additional open louvers allowed hot air to escape; this kept the interior temperate. Detail: How is it made?

1855 Palais d’Industrie: Immediately after the closing of 1851 London exhibition, Napoleon III announced in Paris the plans for the first International Exhibition in France, to mark forty years of

peace in Europe following the Battle of Waterloo. It was also to mark France’s own technological advances in light of the success of the British.

1855 Palais d’Industrie: Overlooked Detail

The Palais d’Industrie, which measured 250 meters by 180 meters, was somewhat smaller than the Crystal Palace, which stood 564 meters by 124 meters. Like the Crystal Palace, it was centrally located in Paris, situated between the ChampsÉlysées and the Seine. Unlike its British counterpart, the Palais was planned as a permanent building, to be reused for future events. Unfortunately, it was designed without adequate ventilation. The main hall Detail: How is it made?

had a large free-spanned glass roof which created an internal greenhouse, making the hall too hot during the day. Sun-shading and louvers were not incorporated in the design planning. Ironically, the Palais was torn down and not used for the 1900 Exhibition while the Crystal Palace was dismantled and rebuilt in Syndenham Hill in 1854. It remained in use until it was destroyed by a fire in 1936. 63

Without color, the building is too monotone and scaleless; the difference is clear to see when comparing the black-and-white engraving and the color plate drawing.

Crystal Palace 1851: Planning Detail Inclusion of a Color Scheme

The canvas shading provided heat relief and diffused interior light, and with a building of this size, contours and details were lost. The architect Owen Jones, a pioneer of modern color theory, was asked to create a color concept to highlight the structural lightness and to accentuate architectural details. In his presentation to the Royal Institute of British Architects of 1851, he stated, “It would everywhere bring out the construction of the building, which, as I said 64

before, would appear higher, longer, and more solid.”9 At any rate, it was necessary for the iron to be painted to prevent corrosion. The decision to have a color scheme to enhance detailing was another element of forethought in its detail planning.

Detail: How is it made?

Color Strategy: “As one of the objects of decorating a building is to increase the effect of light and shade, the best means of using blue, red, and yellow is to place blue, which retires, on the concave surfaces; yellow, which advances, on the convex; and red, the color of the middle distance, on Detail: How is it made?

the horizontal planes; the neutral white on the vertical planes. Following out this principle in the building before us, we have red for the underside of the girders, yellow on the round portions of the columns, blue in the hollows of the capitals.”10 Owen Jones, 1851

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From a 1852 account, there was a total of 3,300 columns. “The columns of the building perform three important offices. They support the roof and the galleries, and serve as pipes to convey the rainwater from the roofs. Their form which […] is a ring, eight inches in diameter externally, the

thickness varying in the different columns, according to the weights they have to support respectively.”11 Illustration shows the column connection to the beam Connecting piece

Base plate

Design Detail of Columns in the Crystal Palace

It is hardly imaginable that a building 1,848 feet long (564 meters) on a park site would have consistent ground conditions and be level. These changes would necessitate changes in column strength and its foundations. To keep the columns visually the same throughout, the differences needed for changes in structural load were taken into account in the thickness of the columns, which were hollow tubes. Each tube was attached to a connecting piece or a base depending on its location.

connected and built up. This saved time and labor during construction. There were 1,200 faces and if each needed to be adjusted and lathed on-site, it would have been impossible to complete the building on time. The lathing was done off site with a considerable amount of additional labor; this ultimately saved both time and costs because it allowed work on-site to continue without disruption.

The joining faces of the columns and connection elements were lathed in advance so that on-site they would fit properly without additional work when they were 66

Detail: How is it made?

A module, measuring 24 feet by 24 feet Roof glazing

Paxton’s gutters

8f t ft 24

8f t 8f t

Column centerline

Cast-iron structure

Planning and Construction Detail of Glazed Roof for Crystal Palace

The glazing was fixed after the construction of the building’s structure. Two problems arose: first, it was not possible to build a scaffolding for roofing – the sheer roof size was prohibitive; and second, the glazing had to be completed independent of weather conditions, which in England is an illusory feat. The solution was to use the building structure as its own scaffolding for roof glazing. Charles Fox from Fox & Henderson, the contractors, devised a traveling stage with four wheels that ran on Paxton’s gutters. The stage was 8 feet by 8 feet and followed the structural bay of a 24-feetby-24-feet module. A stage was manned by two workers. It contained a box of glass and had a canvas awning to protect the Detail: How is it made?

workers, allowing them to work regardless of weather conditions. Sash-bars and other materials were kept on the stage; an opening in the middle of the stage, fitted with a pulley, allowed glazers to haul up additional supplies from below. The glazers worked uninterrupted fixing the glazing and sashbars, rolling from east to west. It was estimated that a single glazer could install fifty-eight squares in a day; seventy-six platforms were used to complete the work.12

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Great Conservatory at Chatsworth, built between 1836 and 1840 and demolished in 1920. It was 84 meters long by 37 meters wide and 19 meters high.

Paxton’s Ridge-and-Furrow Roof Glazing System

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Paxton originally developed this system for the greenhouses at Chatsworth, where he was head gardener for the Duke of Devonshire. The roof was designed to allow the maximum amount of light. The sunlight at noon would be indirect, while in the early morning and evening, the sun would shine at a right angle to the glass for more light. The wooden construction was lightweight and, with Paxton’s tooling machine, quick and easy to produce. Detail: How is it made?

Exterior

Rainwater drain

Interior

Condensation drain

The principle of the sash gutter system is rainwater and condensation are drained toward a hollow structural column, acting as drain pipes. It is then funneled to internal and external gutters. Wood was used because it was 30 percent cheaper than metal. In addition, the extreme changes in heat,

Wooden sashes, made with Paxton’s patented cutting tool

Noon sun

Glazing

very hot in summer and cold in frosty weather, meant metal’s expansion and contraction due to temperature changes would cause the glass to crack. Paxton’s diagrams show how his ridge-andfurrow roof system would allow more sunlight compared to traditional greenhouses.

Noon sun Morning sun

Evening sun

Morning sun Evening sun

In a traditional greenhouse, light is obstructed by rafters, especially the morning and evening light, which is important for fruit growth.

Detail: How is it made?

Paxton’s ridge-and-furrow construction allowed for optimal sunlight in the morning and evening.

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Workers on the roof of Crystal Palace after its move to Sydenham. The ridge-and-furrow construction is clear to see in both its flat and curved roof structure.

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Detail: How is it made?

Geodesic dome: The same structural system, with different details and materials

Details Reused and Redeveloped

Detail: How is it made?

Paxton’s principle idea of using a modular system evolved and developed into newer systems – for example, a geodesic dome, which is faster to construct than Paxton’s sash gutter and is very versatile despite its rigid form. Different details can influence not only its appearance but its durability, stability, sustainability, and function. As a result a single concept can have many different faces. 71

A few possibilities: Nut and bolt: ends of the rods are flattened and have a hole for the bolt.

Geodesic Dome: Connection Details

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A geodesic structure is constructed by many rods of a single length, held together to form triangular frames. The connection or joint that binds these rods is crucial to how the dome is constructed. Is the joint a specially tooled connection piece or a nut and bolt? Does the “skin” need to be attached to it? How is the skin attachment integrated? Is the skin exposed to the elements? Is the skin rigid or tensile? All these factors affect the final details of the connection piece.

Detail: How is it made?

A flat, star-shaped metal piece can be inserted or attached to metal or wooden slats.

Detail: How is it made?

Specially cast plastic or metal tubes, so rods can be inserted into place.

Cylinder or block for metal or wooden slats to be screwed into place.

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Classic solutions: Tree and wooden shutters

Sun Shading

The lack of proper sun shading proved disastrous for the Palais d’Industrie. In current building politics, the importance of CO2 values of a building, reflected in the amount of solar gain and loss, has become a basic detail factor. To control internal heat gain and loss, shutters are used in summer to keep sunlight out, reducing solar heat gain inside. At night shutters are raised and windows opened to allow cool night air in, thereby creating a natural cooling system to 74

keep rooms temperate in summer. In winter the process is reversed. Shutters are up during the day, to absorb as much solar heat as possible and lowered at night to keep heat in. It is possible to reduce energy-consuming mechanical heat and cooling systems by well-placed shutters.

Detail: How is it made?

Standard, off-the-shelf shutter solutions: What kind of shutters are used? How much area must the shutter cover or how big are the windows? How is the shutter integrated into the facade? Are there any other solutions?

A bump on the facade, clearly indicating the shutter.

Flush with exterior wall, defined by change of material

Integrated into exterior wall

Detail: How is it made?

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Brise-soleil: An overhang on the facade where a shadow is cast, keeping what lies within the shadow cool. For countries closer to the equator where the sun is high, this is a perfect solution; but in those countries further away from the equator, where the sun is lower, the shading is not effective enough. There is also no visual barrier.

Membrane canopy: Slightly more flexible than a traditional brise-soleil, this lightweight structure can cantilever further away from the building to cast more protection. There is, however, no visual barrier.

Alternative Solutions

When a standard shutter system is not viable, which one is the right one? For a building with a completely glazed facade, which detail is the right one, or is there a right solution? To determine this, various options are considered; each has an advantage and a disadvantage. The final decision is based not only on how the shading affects the facade but also on budget, availability, and appropriate function.

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Detail: How is it made?

Movable awning: Rolled textile sails with a similar function to an awning. There is a visual barrier of up to 60 percent, and it is adjustable to each glazing frame.

A double brise-soleil, with pivot louvers: This is a more flexible system, but one that offers a visual barrier only from above, not below.

Solid pivoting fins: Visually dynamic; when closed, the facade is “sealed”; when partially closed there is sense of movement, and when completely open, complete

Detail: How is it made?

transparency. The disadvantage is there is always shading, and when closed there is a gap between the fins allowing light in.

Exterior curtains: Fulllength exterior curtains are visually dramatic. The ephemeral quality of light is an advantage in keeping the interior free of fussy drapes. It is, however, sensitive to wind and extreme weather conditions. For a two-story facade with a double-height space and

two single-height spaces, there would be two different curtain lengths.

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External Louvers

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There is a continuous band at the top for the housing of the louvers for double-height spaces. While a break in the facade is necessary where louvers are needed for two separate floors to allow each level to control the amount of light based on individual needs, the system emphasizes the box-like quality of the building.

Detail: How is it made?

Tensile Shading

Detail: How is it made?

Tensile shading is less rigid than louvers, while still providing solar protection. There is a higher translucency, with diaphanous light quality. The rigidity of a box is somewhat softened by the shading system.

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Details create a constant flow of questions and answers that adjust each option toward an applicable solution. However, before a decision is reached, costs are compared, availability is checked, appropriate materials are chosen, delivery time frames are checked with construction time tables, and a decision is made whether it is the right solution for the needs at hand. Good details are important for a successful building, both before and during construction. 80

Detail: How is it made?

Footnotes

1. Bill Addis, “The Crystal Palace and Its Place in Structural History,” International Journal of Space Structures 21, no. 1 (2016): 3–19, here, 14. 2. Ibid. 3. Anthony Bird, Paxton’s Palace. London: Cassell, 1976, 63. 4. Ibid., 62. 5. Ibid., 5. 6. Ibid., 6. 7. Ibid., 67. 8. Ibid., 89. 9. “The Interior Decoration of the Crystal Palace,” Bulletin of the American Art-Union, no. 2 (May 1, 1851): 28–29, here, 28. 10. Ibid., 29. 11. Peter Berlyn and Charles Fowler, The Crystal Palace: Its Architectural History and Constructive Marvels. London: J. Gilbert, 1851, 55. 12. Ibid., 35.

Detail: How is it made?

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Parameter 4

Materials: What is it made of?

Which material to use and why? The easiest answer is availability: use what is abundant, easy to work with, and structurally stable. However, there are other factors that influence a choice of material. What are they?

Materials: What is it made of?

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Natural Materials

Grass Ice/snow Mud/clay Rammed earth Mud bricks Sand Stone/rock Thatch Wood

Man-made Materials

Fired bricks Cement composites Concrete Fabric Foam Glass Metal Plastic Paper Ceramics Fiberglass

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Materials: What is it made of?

Wood

Grass

g

Earth Available materials

+ What Other Factors Influence Our Choice?

Materials: What is it made of?

Pig One’s Grass House

Pig Two’s Wooden House

Pig Three’s Brick House

Blown down

Burnt

OK

= In the story of the three little pigs, each pig builds his house with a different substance; one out of grass, another from wood, and the third with bricks. Each house is made with a readily available material. Along comes the Big Bad Wolf, who blows the grass house down, and burns the wooden house. The brick house does not succumb to the wolf and, depending on the version of the story one knows, at least one pig is safe in the brick house, if not all three. The lesson is: the choice of material is based on security. 85

International standard sizes (in millimeters): American bricks: 57×92×194 Danish bricks: 54×108×228 German bricks: 71×115×240 UK bricks: 65×102.5×215

Bricks

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Bricks are long-lasting, easy to produce, made from clay (earth), sand, and lime. A standardized size and uniformity makes it easy to transport as well as to store. A simple brick wall does not require special equipment nor highly technical skills, making it a material that is easy to use. It is no surprise that is it is also one of the oldest building materials found.

Materials: What is it made of?

The brick clamp is a traditional method of firing bricks; elementary, primitive and simple kiln form. The method is still used in India.

Under twenty-three layers of civilization, the earliest evidence of dried mud brick, ca. 10,000– 8000 BC at Tell es Sultan (ancient Jericho): the sun-dried mud brick walls were the main construction material for domestic houses and fortifications.

Relief from Trajan’s Column (113 AD), with a brick wall in the background

Materials: What is it made of?

87

Wood

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Barring danger from a hungry wolf, wood has the advantage over bricks that it is easily available, can be prepared for construction with simple tools, and is structurally flexible. Wood-frame structures are better at withstanding earthquakes. Wood has better sound absorption, good insulation properties, and is light but still has a high tensile strength.

Materials: What is it made of?

Metal corrosion

Brick corrosion

Climate Can Influence Material Choice

Materials: What is it made of?

Traditional Japanese builders favored wood and its by-products because of the abundance of trees, the natural flexibility of wood, and more important, its suitability to the climate and Japan’s environment. Wooden joint connections are preferred, since high humidity causes iron nails to rust. The joinery seals itself naturally, with the material’s innate contraction and expansion due to heat and humidity. A land prone to earthquakes, wood is pliable and able to withstand movement without structural failure. A building made of bricks is too rigid to withstand earthquakes and too sealed for a humid climate, resulting in condensation and mold. 89

Ise Grand Shrine next to the ghost of its past and future

Wood: Impermanence as a Building Ideal

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Wood is a building material that corrodes and ages easily. It is constantly changing and never the same. Things made of wood do not last forever. What could be considered a negative factor can in another culture be seen as an ideal representation of its beliefs.

Materials: What is it made of?

Site plan of Ise Grand Shrine

Site 1

Wood reflects the Japanese existential attitude of impermanence and imperfection and a striving toward harmonic balance. Ise-Jinigu, an important Shinto shrine, is ritually rebuilt every twenty years from one site to its identical neighboring site. It is a physical manifestation of a life cycle, of destruction and rebirth. Moving from site to site, the shrine is always new but paradoxically ancient. The traditional construction methods are replicated within a person’s Materials: What is it made of?

Site 2

lifetime, with the result that traditional skills are passed eternally from one generation of craftsmen to the next. This is possible because the material used is wood. Could one imagine a cathedral being rebuilt every twenty years?

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Brunel’s proposal made of bricks with a dome covered in sheet iron

Limited Construction Time

Building construction time and brief can determine which material is more appropriate. The brief for the Great Exhibition of 1851 required a building that was six times the size of St. Paul’s Cathedral, which took thirty-five years to build. The Great Exhibition had a planning and construction time of sixteen months from start to finish. With glass, iron, and wood, builders could work continuously, losing no construction time. For a brick building, construction would need to stop at various stages while the mortar dried, thereby requiring more time for completion.

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The production of bricks alone would be prohibitive. It was estimated for Brunel’s rejected proposal, seventeen million bricks1 would be necessary for the main hall. In addition, the brief required the dismantling of the hall at the end of the six-month exhibition time and the site in Hyde Park restored. Where would seventeen million bricks go?

Materials: What is it made of?

Iron Bridge from 1781, over the River Severn, was the first bridge made from cast iron. In 1709 Abraham Darby I used coke made from coals from Coalbrookdale to smelt iron ore to create a more flexible and stronger form of iron, and thus began an new industry and a revolution in production processes.

Crystal Palace: New Material, Cast Iron

3,800 tons of cast iron were used for the Crystal Palace. In 1851 it was still a relatively new material. In the 1770s, it became possible for a large-scale and reliable production of cast iron. As a building material, it is strong in compression but weak in tension, so it is good for columns but not for beams. To solve this inherent material weakness, iron tie rods in the lower beam flanges were used in the exhibition building. Wrought iron, which has more tensile strength but is more expensive due to its time-consuming production process, was used for diagonal bracing. Cast-iron production relies on reheating and melting iron Materials: What is it made of?

oxide with air blown into the molten mass. The carbon content of 2.4–4 percent determines its strength. It was not possible in the 1850s to control the amount of carbon nor to rid it of impurities, ash, or sulfur. These impurities weakened the material and led to building failures; live load testing before construction was essential. To ensure the strength of the material, a dynamic load test with soldiers marching on a 1:1 mock-up using a specially constructed apparatus was conducted on-site.2

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Mahogany Balustrades: “The balustrades to twelve pairs of staircases were capped by more than two miles of stout mahogany rail 2¼ inches in diameter with a 1-inch

flat on the underside. This handrail was also formed in one pass from roughly squared lengths of mahogany in another multiple-cutter machine.”3

Crystal Palace: Wood

Around 600,000 cubic feet of timber were used for the building. Paxton’s gutter system was made from wood; though it was possible to use cast iron, using wood was faster and less expensive. As a temporary structure, to be torn down after six months, there was no concern that unseasoned wood was used. This became a problem when the building was rebuilt in Sydenham, when maintenance expenses and repainting were necessary once it became a per94

manent structure. Wood was also used as flooring throughout as well as for more complex building elements due to the limited construction time. Cutting and milling wood was easier and faster than casting and milling metals. Paxton’s gutters could be cut to size with a circular saw, while wood planks could be sent through a machine and cut into a complex form ready to be used as beveled sash, all done on-site. Materials: What is it made of?

1910 photograph from Chance Brothers factory, showing the making of sheet glass

Crystal Palace: Glass

Around 900,000 square feet of glass was used. Glass allowed natural light into the building, reducing the need for artificial light. Cast and rolled plate glass was less expensive to produce than handblown glass made by glass blowers. The glass used for the Crystal Palace was supplied by Chance Brothers, who had provided Paxton with large amounts of plate glass for the Chatsworth greenhouses. They were able Materials: What is it made of?

to supply the necessary inexpensive plate glass in a short amount of time. In the process they patented, the glass was not blown in a round form but swung in a trough until the glass formed into large cylinders. The glass is cooled, then the cylinder is cut, reheated, and flattened. The resulting glass is much larger and has better quality. 95

The relief from Giotto’s Campanile in Florence was one of a series depicting the seven mechanical arts of human endeavors. Completed by Andrea Pisano in 1337, “the art of weaving” was in honor of the weavers who were influential in

Florence’s economy. The fortune of Renaissance Florentines rested on individual weavers in partnership with a manufacturing industry. This gave the craftsmen power through their guild and allowed Florence to flourish without the need for factories.

Interchangeable Components: Industrialized Materials

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Cast-iron elements are just a single example of creating prefabricated building parts for greater uniformity and construction speed. Despite the fact that industrialization was necessary for this, the role of interchangeable components is not a modern invention. In fifteenth-century Florence, the Medicis relied on cottage workshops for their spinning and weaving production. Machine parts that would wear down were mass-produced, allowing users to easily replace parts.4 A tried-and-true system, using materials in component form saves time and creates uniformity. The step from machine parts to building elements was a step that revolutionized the speed of on-site construction. Materials: What is it made of?

Building Element: Tatami

Materials: What is it made of?

A tatami is another example of a preindustrial, mass-produced building element. It is a prefabricated building component comprised of rice straw, with a covering made of woven rush straw, with an occasional brocade or cloth edge. A building material that breathes, it allows air to flow through, preventing moisture from collecting. It is lightweight, so that a single panel can be carried by one person, making it very easy to install and transport. There is no need for sealants or additional fixtures. It is a building material that forms the building grid and does not require complex machinery or fixing parts. Like a machine part, when it is worn out, it is quickly and simply replaced. 97

The Zeiss-Dywidag lightweight system and shotcrete are similar in the use of concrete on a reinforced structural net.

The concrete is shot at high velocity and creates curving, seamless surfaces that have structural integrity.

Lightweight Materials: Zeiss Planetarium of 1922

Material weight is a factor that influences costs and construction. The cast-iron columns of the Crystal Palace were hollow to reduce the amount of material, which kept costs low. The first planetarium, a prototype of what would become a standard, was built on top of the Zeiss factory. For the existing building to take the additional load of the new dome, it was important that it was as lightweight as possible. The structure was based on a hexagonal grid, a wire 98

mesh created from 3,840 steel rods connected together by star-shaped joints. This steel net provided the reinforcement necessary for the shot concrete, that is, concrete or mortar sprayed at a high speed over the mesh. Layers upon layers are created to form an even, smooth shell. The end product is strong but lightweight. Most important was to have smooth interior surface, which acted as a projection screen for the planetarium. Materials: What is it made of?

Humid climate

Inexpensive local material

? Security

Recycled materials Pallet walls filled with reclaimed pebbles and glass bottles for glazing Which material is right for me?

Choice of Material

Whether the decision about materials is based on tradition, availability, costs, needs, time constraints, technology, brief requirements, environment, or strength, it is rarely based on a single decision and is more likely dependent on a combination of requirements. The awareness of limited resources has led to recycled materials, adding another factor to our choice of materials. For example, new recycling processes have made it possible for a plastic bottle to Materials: What is it made of?

transform itself as fabric for a new insulation material, as already used for fleece sweaters. What new materials will be available for buildings in the future?

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Footnotes

1. John McKean, Joseph Paxton, and Charles Fox, Crystal Palace. London: Phaidon, 1994, 12. 2. Bill Addis, “The Crystal Palace and Its Place in Structural History,” International Journal of Space Structures 21, no. 1 (2016): 3–19, here, 9–10. 3. Anthony Bird, Paxton’s Palace. London: Cassell, 1976, 79. 4. Addis, 15.

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Materials: What is it made of?

Parameter 5

Cost: How much does it cost?

The cost of a building is comprised of planning, construction, and fitting out. Planning: planners (architect, engineers, local authorities) Construction: materials, builders Interior: finishes, furniture, fixtures. The planners, who interpret the client’s brief, decide which materials are used, how the building will be constructed, by whom it will be built, and calculate final costs.

Cost: How much does it cost?

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Ideal balance

The variables that can influence this balance: – construction time – availability of materials – area or volume of project – availability of builders or workers – overly complex design – lack of funds

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Possible solutions to keep the balance intact: – building in stages – changing materials – reducing area or volume – simplifying the design

Cost: How much does it cost?

Budget too small

Building too big

When the building exceeds the budget, there can be obvious and simple solutions. If the building is too big, then make it smaller. Often unexpected cost issues relate to length of construction time, changes made after planning, and when the project is already on-site. Adequate and thorough planning can influence a budget and prevent unexpected higher costs.

Cost: How much does it cost?

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Aswan Dam site, 1960s: Low-technology construction site; no machinery, more workers

Cranes, lorries, high-tech construction methods: High-technology construction site; more machinery, fewer workers

In an industrial society, man-hours for professionals and workers are expensive. In a nonindustrial society, machinery and professionals are expensive, but workers are not.

time planning is: If house painters arrive before the walls are constructed, then the time the painting crew is on-site – which the client must pay for – is wasted. Waiting time creates additional costs. It is important that each phase of the construction is carefully coordinated and communicated.

Time is therefore an expensive element of building construction. The longer a building takes to be built, the more man-hours are needed, and the higher the costs. All work prepared off-site reduces on-site time – this includes planning time. The more carefully a building is planned, the less time is wasted on-site. A simple example of how important 106

Cost: How much does it cost?

High oil prices in 1979 resulted in higher raw material prices in the plastics industry. Reacting to this, one company that produced plastic products had to rethink their production line. Reducing the amount of the now expensive raw material required, the company created a new product:

Playmobil, toy figures with movable hands, arms, legs, and head that are only 7.5 centimeters tall.1 Originally the simple forms varied only in color and costume to distinguish different characters. With the success of the product, more elements were introduced.

Example from Industry

Standardized and prefabricated pieces are the key to mass production: this lowers a single unit’s price and at the same time increases the number of pieces produced in a given time span. It uses a simple linear plan, where a raw material begins in a production line and ends up a finished product. When this isn’t possible – for example, at the Porsche factory – the complete process of production is put to question. The focus changes from the importance of the piece as it moves along the production line to how the piece moves. Costs are reduced Cost: How much does it cost?

by eliminating storage and stock: computerized customization reduces production time; each necessary part is delivered straight from delivery trucks in the right amounts to where it is needed in production. In industry, thorough planning saves time and reduces cost. This is also true for buildings. The more time spent in planning, the truer the cost estimate is to the final building cost.

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The Dam Royal Palace in Amsterdam (completed in 1665) needed a foundation of 13,659 wooden piles. The building is 80 meters long, 63 meters wide, and 33 meters high, at the top of the dome, 53 meters high.

Choosing Materials Does Availability Influence Costs?

The assumption that preindustrial construction sites relied mainly on local materials due to availability is an oversimplification. If one takes medieval Amsterdam, buildings were constructed from bricks, which were made from clay found in local riverbeds. Even the word’s English origin stems from the Middle Dutch word, bricke. However, bricks did not provide a stable enough foundation over the shifting sands that the houses were built on. It was necessary to 108

import long, straight logs from as far away as the Black Forest so that foundations could rest on solid ground. The cost of importing logs is justified, otherwise annual floods would wash away the buildings. Alternatively, the lack of funds might influence the choice of materials. The fairytale castles of Ludwig II of Bavaria were decorated with cast terra-cotta rather than sculpted stonework, a necessity due to the strained royal coffers. Cost: How much does it cost?

The illustration shows the electrical layout plan for kitchen; the red notations showing locations for electrical outlets. The kitchen alone requires energy for large appliances – stove, refrigerator, fume hood, dishwasher, freezer – while outlets for smaller appliances, such as a coffee

maker, toaster, etc., also need to be provided. The plan includes additional outlets for lighting, telephone, and network cabling, which need electrical access. This is a small example of a single household’s energy needs.

Buildings and energy consumption

European Union

In 2010 the US building sector, (which includes residential, single- and multifamily homes, and commercial buildings) was responsible for 19 percent of global energy consumption. This made the US the second-largest consumer behind China. Within the US, the building sector was responsible for 41 percent of primary energy consumption. This was a nearly 50 percent increase from the 1980s. It is projected that by 2035, there will be a rise of 17 percent from the 2009 primary energy consumption level in the building sector. Economic conditions, such as recession, which bring down consumption, are taken into account. Despite this, there is a steady increase due to population growth.2

Buildings contribute to 40 percent of energy consumption and are responsible for 36 percent of CO2 emissions. New buildings use 3– 5 liters of heating oil/m2/year. Older buildings use an average 25 liters of heating oil/m2/year; and the worst-case scenario is 60 liters of heating oil/m2/year. Thirty-five percent of the EU’s buildings are more than fifty years old, 75 percent of which are energy inefficient.3

In the Age of Global Energy Concern

The concern in industrial nations to bring down CO2 emissions is linked to costsaving measures. There are many studies that focus on the environmental impact of building construction. One conducted by the US Green Building Council states “buildings have a lifespan of 50 to 100 years during which they continually consume and produce CO2 emissions. If half of new commercial buildings were built to use 50 percent less energy it would save over Cost: How much does it cost?

6 million metric tons of CO2 annually for the life of the building – the equivalent of taking one million cars off the road.”4 An EU study concluded that the data for Life Cycle Assessments are currently not good enough but believe that standards are necessary to streamline energy calculation processes. The conclusion is saving energy can lead to an overall cost reduction.

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O2

CO2

O2

+

Fossil fuels and increased release of CO2

=

Global warming

Man-made additions to carbon cycle Carbon cycle simplified

Dictionary definition:

Scientific definition:

carbon footprint, noun 1. a measure of the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere by a single endeavor or by a company, household, or individual through day-to-day activities over a given period.5

A measure of the total amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) emissions of a defined population, system, or activity, considering all relevant sources, sinks, and storage within the spatial and temporal boundary of the popula-

Costs and Carbon Footprint

tion, system, or activity of interest. Calculated as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) using the relevant 100-year global warming potential (GWP100).6

Buildings are great energy consumers with a high rate of CO2 emissions. The carbon footprint of a material used in construction adds to the building’s impact on the environment as well as its CO2 output during use. Physically, it is impossible for a building to have zero energy output, since its CO2 value would need an equivalent O2 exchange to maintain an ecological balance. A CO2 zero building is where the building’s energy is from renewable sources. To note, as far as costs are concerned, a certified sustainable building has a better commercial value. How accurate and meaningful is the relationship between economic and ecological issues?

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Cost: How much does it cost?

Local Product = Better Carbon Footprint, True? The British and Green Beans

In an effort to support local industry and to help the environment, there was a movement in England to boycott Kenyan green beans in favor of locally grown beans. Surprisingly, studies conducted by Bangor University found that air-flown Kenyan beans have a smaller carbon footprint than locally grown produce. They were also less expensive. Why? Because Kenyans work the land manually and use cow manure as fertilizer and a low-tech irrigation system. The English beans, on the other hand, use fertilizers, and the land is worked with tractors; greenhouses keep the beans in a constant environment, regardless of outside temperature and weather.7 Local produce is not as environmentally friendly as one is led to believe. How thorough are carbon footprint ratings – or even sustainability ratings?

Cost: How much does it cost?

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Tidal power

Alternative Energy

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Nuclear power plant

Wind power

Given the urgency of reducing a building’s energy use in our environment, the current vogue of buildings covered in solar collectors, using geothermal heating and recycled wastewater, and built with triple- or quadruple-insulated glass and so on, is understandable. But how effective is this? To compare this to the automobile industry, non-fossil-fuel cars have already shown that the issues of energy are indeed very complex. Cost: How much does it cost?

Cap rock Steam Heated hot water Bedrock Magma Solar collectors

Geothermal heating

Pictured above are examples of alternatives to fossil fuels as an energy source. Questions regarding their effectiveness include: What is the initial investment cost in relation to actual savings? Once the energy is harnessed, how is it stored? Is my energy source linked to a network?

Cost: How much does it cost?

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Electric Cars

A study published by the National Academy of Sciences on levels of fine particle matter and ground-level ozone found that the resulting deaths due to air pollution and vehicle pollution is more complicated than just switching to electric cars. Fine particle and ozone pollution kills 100,000 people per year in the US. There are eleven different ways an electric car can be recharged. An electric car powered by batteries that are recharged through wind, solar, or hydroelectric power was found to be the cleanest, but it was still responsible for 231 deaths per year.

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In comparison, petrol-powered automobiles are responsible for 878 deaths per year. Electric cars recharged with natural gasfired power stations cause 439 deaths per year. Biofuels also present more health hazards than petrol, and despite the fact that diesel produces more particles, dieselrun engines have better fuel economy; as a consequence, they end up being less lethal than petrol especially if they are fitted with adequate particulate filters.8 Electric energy in France is mainly provided by atomic power. Electric cars produce less fine particle pollution, but there is the downside of atomic waste. In China, 80 percent of electricity is produced by coal. Thus, their electric cars have a higher contribution to air pollution.

Cost: How much does it cost?

Global Electricity Production9 Electricity Production (TWh) China 5,583 US 4,330 India 1,296 Russia 1,064 Japan 996 Canada 640 Germany 616 Brazil 584 France 562 South Korea 540

Renewable Electricity Production (incl. hydro) Norway 98% New Zealand 79% Brazil 73% Columbia 70% Venezuela 62.8% Portugual 62.6% Canada 62.5% Sweden 58.5% China 42.8% Italy 42.1%

Global Electricity Consumption Electricity Consumption (TWh) China 4,833 US 3,830 India 998 Japan 903 Russia 873 Canada 538 Brazil 524 Germany 516 South Korea 599 France 430

Coal and Lignite Production (Mt) China 3,474 US 924 India 654 Australia 480 Indonesia 472 Russia 355 South Africa 265 Germany 188 Poland 137 Kazakhstan 114

Global CO2 Emission Coal and Lignite Consumption (Mt) China 3,473 India 924 US 835 Germany 236 Russia 211 South Africa 197 Japan 184 South Korea 134 Poland 130 Australia 122

CO2 Emissions (Mt CO2) China 8,337 US 5,312 India 2,187 Russia 1,676 Japan 1,141 Germany 716 South Korea 589 Iran 586 Canada 518 Saudi Arabia 510

Electric cars are not a green solution if one is in China, though they certainly make sense in Norway.

Cost: How much does it cost?

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YES in Norway

NO in China

Striving for global green: Where does it make sense to drive an E-car?

This Begs the Question: Are Electric Cars Environmentally Friendly?

The answer is, it depends on where you live. Not all energy-saving solutions are appropriate for all buildings. Location is an important factor. A good concept for a temperate climate does not work in one with extreme seasonal changes. The integration of energy issues in the planning stage is crucial. Work on-site might start later than expected, but this is counterbalanced by a more thorough design and ultimately will result in lower overall costs and better future maintenance expenditures.

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Cost: How much does it cost?

Nepal Construction work is carried out by unskilled manual labor, which would normally be done mechanically in an industrial country. A female laborer working as a stone crusher earns 1,820 rupees, despite a government minimum wage of 4,600 rupees. An un-

Germany skilled roof caster will receive 3,120 or 3,900 rupees, depending on sex. These figures are from 2002, but they show unskilled workers earn a rate clearly below the minimum living wage. Also, these workers receive no health or safety benefits and are not continuously employed.10

The building construction worker is a skilled laborer; after completion of an apprenticeship and education period of twenty-four months, the worker is inducted into a guild. Average salary is 32,500 euros per annum in 2016.11 Work rates 57 euros per hour.12

Note: minimum wage in 2015 was 8.50 euros per hour

Quality of Workforce

On a building site in Western Europe, labor is expensive. The longer workers are on-site, the more expensive the building is. In Germany, for example, workers from the building industry are required to be part of a professional association, such as the masonry, electricians’, or painters’ guilds. There is a set period for apprenticeship followed by qualification exams; once passed, they are protected by their respective guilds. This results in qualified but relatively expensive workers.

Cost: How much does it cost?

Legal imported labor is an alternative to keep prices down. However, the quality of the workmanship is no longer guaranteed, especially when workers come from countries where qualification standards do not exist. Not only is workforce availability important, but the quality of their craftsmanship can influence the costs. This could be effectively controlled by the clarity of the architect’s working drawings, how well the site is managed (the order of work), as well as how good site supervision is. 117

Least expensive to produce Large production numbers

Mass-produced sizes based on three standards: – body length – chest width – sleeve length

Most expensive to produce Individualized one-offs

Mass-produced sizes based on six standards: – body length – chest width – sleeve length – shoulder width – waist width – back length – neck size

Bespoke sizes based on nine individual measurements: – sleeve length – arm circumference – chest width – waist width – hip width – neck size – back length – collar type – cuff type

Men’s shirts Balancing quality, price, and fit

Quality as Investment

Industrialization has a twofold influence on quality. Uniformly made products can be produced in greater quantities and at lower costs, which allows consumers a possibility to obtain products at a better price and with greater ease than bespoke products. The downside is that the quality is dependent on the price-to-production ratio. A favorite preoccupation of contemporary society is weighing the balance between price and quality. 118

Buildings are the highest CO2 offenders. When built only with profit-margin calculations, an ethical question arises concerning the morality of producing a badly built and designed building. An investment in building quality is measured on the virtue of its planning and execution, as well as how it functions and the benefits to the user. A better design is a good investment, as well as a potential investment in the environment. Cost: How much does it cost?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Hyde Park

10

6 4

7

3

Profits from the Great Exhibition of 1851 were used for the purchase of eighty-seven acres in South Kensington. This site was used to establish museums (Victoria and Albert Museum, Natural History Museum, etc.), learning facilities (the

5 Albertopolis in Kensington

1

8

2

Imperial College Natural History Museum Royal Albert Hall Royal College of Art Royal College of Music Royal Geographical Society Royal Institute of Navigation Science Museum Victoria and Albert Museum Albert Memorial

Imperial College of Science and Technology) and research centers. To this day the commission supports research and academic excellence.

9

The Great Exhibition of 1851: Cost and Profit

The Crystal Palace was funded by subscription and organized by the Royal Commission for the 1851 Exhibition. No public funds were used for the project. During the six-month period of its opening, the revenue intake from admissions and concessions would ultimately cover the construction costs and resulted in profits for the Commission.

Cost: How much does it cost?

Open for 141 days Total visitors 6,039,195 Total receipts 522,179 pounds Total costs 335,742 pounds (this included the building and its fit-out) Profit 186,437 pounds13 A combination of factors made it possible for the ultimate success of the project; however, an important factor was a wellplanned and designed building. 119

Cheffin’s Map of the Great Western Railway, 1851: Highlighted are the major industrial cities important for the delivery of goods on-site in London.

Manchester Liverpool

Derby Birmingham

London

Railway as a Factor

An extensive rail network facilitated cost savings during construction as well as profits during the Great Exhibition. Girders and columns arrived by rail from foundries directly to the site. This aided construction speed. Trains made it possible for visitors to come from far away at great speed and cheap prices. Communities and societies took advantage of the railways, and outings were planned to visit the Great Exhibition. A national grassroots interest added to the financial profit of the exhibition’s investors.

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Cost: How much does it cost?

The Four Basic Phases of a Building Project

Phase 1: Preparation of design Phase 2: Brief preliminary design Concept Design development Technical design Tender Phase

Phase 3: Before construction Gathering of enough information for tender Creation of tender documents Receipt of tender bids back Phase 4: Construction

Tender as a Factor

Fox & Henderson, the engineer, contractor, and iron master firm, were able to complete the remarkable task of submitting a tender within a week for a building that had a volume of 33 million cubic feet, with an untested construction system. To give an idea of the scope of the project, the necessary glass was equivalent to 30 to 50 percent of the total national output. In addition, the building had to be completed in twentytwo weeks, when fitting out would begin. Fox & Henderson submitted a two-point tender, for 150,000 pounds – or 79,800 pounds, if, after dismantling, they received the materials back,14 thus making the ten-

Cost: How much does it cost?

der attractive to the committee, which would pay less for the building without the worry of reselling the demolished building material. In order for Fox & Henderson to submit for tender, they needed to have accurate drawings, costs, and construction times. These documents were produced with Fox working eighteen-hour days to get every aspect of the building down on paper.15

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Column fitted to base element

3/8 inches

Base socket

1 1/4 inches

Flat-faced column sides Wall abutments are seamless, allowing for orthogonal wall construction.

8 inches

Hollow Columns as a Factor

The columns were cast hollow so that they could easily fit onto foundation pins. They were cast with different interior thicknesses but with the same external diameter, so that all columns and girders were perceived visually as the same. Using less material when it was not required resulted in cost savings without compromising the structural necessity of changing beam sizes when loads were different. 122

In addition, columns, flanges, and abutments to the cross girders were faced off with a lathe off-site, which seemed an unnecessary expense for accuracy, but it saved time, as workers did not need to make any adjustments on-site.16 Given the tight construction time, the initial expense saved time and allowed for rapid erection.

Cost: How much does it cost?

Without the abolition of an excise duty on glass by Sir Robert Peel in 1845, it would not have been possible for the Crystal Palace to be built out of glass. The Window Tax started in 1696 and was followed by King George II’s glass tax of 1746. This tax was based on weight and added approximately 300 percent value to glass’s original cost.17 To avoid payment, owners had windows blocked, as they did at the sixteenthcentury Snowshill Manor.

Glass Tender: Time, Availability and a Law Repeal as Factors

Paxton had worked with glass manufacturers Chance Brothers previously on the Chatsworth greenhouses. He knew they could provide the necessary glass, with the expected quality and at a good price.

based on a glass weight of 16 ounces. A change in weight would have resulted in redesigning the structure. Both time- and cost-prohibitive, Hartley’s tender was rejected.

For the Crystal Palace tender returns, two manufacturers placed bids that came under consideration. Chance Brothers guaranteed a glass plate with a uniform weight of 16 ounces per square foot with a maximum length of 49 inches. A longer length of 62 inches was offered by James Hartley; however, the weight of the glass was twice as much as that of the Chance Brothers. Though less framing material would be necessary, the design of the building was

Chance Brothers produced more than a million square feet of glass in ten weeks. The height of production was two weeks in January 1851, with 63,000 panes produced.18

Cost: How much does it cost?

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Machine for cutting out sash bars: “The sash bars are one inch thick and one-and-ahalf inches deep, and are grooved on each side, besides having all the four edges beveled or chamfered; all of which was done in one passage through the machine. The plank which was to form the sash bars was passed in at one end of the machine, between pressure rollers; it then passed

between cutters placed both above and below it, which made about twelve hundred revolutions per minute, and hollowed out the different grooves; and, lastly, it passed between circular saws which divided it into separate sash bars, after which they had only to be cut into their proper lengths. The exact length of each sash bar when finished is four feet one inch.”19

From plank to sash bars

Time Savings as a Crucial Principle

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A combination of off-site fabrication (iron works) and on-site work (wood) coupled with manual labor and machinery meant that, when possible, innovative machinery was created to facilitate construction. This helped to create accurate building pieces in large quantities, saving manual labor time, limiting material wastage, and ultimately lowering costs. With a clear target date – the opening of the exhibition – this is what drove the teams toward completion. Cost: How much does it cost?

Crystal Palace, Sydenham Hill (1854–1936, destroyed by fire)

Reusing Materials

Cost: How much does it cost?

As part of the tender agreement, Fox & Henderson intended to dismantle the building and reuse parts and materials for other projects. The uniform sizes would make it easier for reuse than a collection of building parts in various sizes and shapes. A gamble, if they were not awarded another contract that would need the quantities used in the exhibition building. Fortunately, they were able to rebuild the same structure in Sydenham. 125

m 10

5m

15 m

m 10

10 m 10 m

= 700 m2 surface area

300 m2

300 m2

300 m2

= 900 m2 surface area

How Shapes Can Influence Costs A sitting block has five exposed surfaces, in this case with an area of 300 square meters. If a block is one housing unit and the tower has three units, a house is less energy-efficient because of its greater surface area where more

energy is lost. A tower with three units is more energy-efficient since it has less surface area. A single service system for a tower supports three units, while each house needs its own. Again, from an efficiency and cost point of view, a tower has a more effective geometry.

Cost-Efficient Construction Methods: Zeiss Planetarium

Costs can be reduced by innovative structures that utilize simpler construction and require less material. The surface area of a geodesic dome has only 38 percent of a surface area of a box-shaped building envelope enclosing the same floor area. This results in less exposure to outdoor temperature fluctuations, that is, it is less expensive to heat or cool. The prefabricated components, star-shaped joints, and equallength steel rods mean that construction 126

time is quicker. Once the main frame is up, it is self-supporting, requiring no additional columns or walls. The prototype planetarium originally built on top of the Zeiss Factory in Jena proved to be a construction method that is cost-efficient since it used less material and can be quickly constructed. This method became the basis for the Zeiss-Dywidag lightweight dome construction patent. Cost: How much does it cost?

“My Kingdom for a House”

King Ludwig II of Bavaria undertook several large-scale building projects during his reign. Neuschwanstein, the best known of these projects, in keeping with royal demands, went over budget and was never completed. It was highly stylized to reinforce Ludwig’s romantic notions of himself and of a monarchy based on an idealized medieval court. As a backdrop for regal life, no cost was spared to create a building to suit his romantic image of the monarchy. Hidden behind the backdrop, it was built with state-of-the-art technology, including precast building elements; iron beams were used for structural support. In addition, it had central heating, running cold and hot Cost: How much does it cost?

water, a telephone, flushing toilets, and a Rumford oven.20 The project cost Ludwig his private fortune and ultimately his kingdom. Construction ended after Ludwig was forced to abdicate. He died soon afterward under mysterious circumstances in 1886, leaving an empty royal coffer. It was decided to allow paying public visitors to the castle in the hopes of some financial recovery. It is one of Germany’s most visited tourist spots.

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Realistic budget

Intelligent details Easily constructed Sustainable materials Fulfills needs

Balancing a building budget is not just a matter of size. Planning, materials used, details, a clear understanding of the brief, and the quality of the team involved in the project are all factors that influence end costs. It does not stand to reason that a more expensive building is a better building. Architectural quality is not bound by a ratio to building costs. 128

Quality product

The irony of Neuschwanstein is that it was only able to recover its costs once it stopped serving as a royal residence and started being a public attraction. Had it not been for the clever Regent and the abolition of the Bavarian monarchy, perhaps the land would still be weighed down by outstanding debts left by its last monarch. The vagaries of financial profit remain outside the provenance of quality. Cost: How much does it cost?

Footnotes

1. “Playmobil: Company History,” Playmobil. Accessed November 8, 2016, http://company.playmobil.com/ Company/en-CA/history. 2. “Chapter 1: The Buildings Sector,” 2011 Buildings Energy Data Book, Washington, DC: Department of Energy, March 2012. 3. “Buildings,” The European Commission. Accessed November 2, 2015, https://ec.europa.eu/energy/en/topics/ energy-efficiency/buildings. 4. “Buildings and Climate Change,” Environmental and Energy Study Institute, http://www.eesi.org/files/ climate.pdf. 5. “Carbon footprint,” Dictionary.com. Accessed July 13, 2015, ttp://dictionary. reference.com/browse/carbon footprint. 6. Laurence A. Wright, Simon Kemp, and Ian Williams. “‘Carbon Footprinting’: Towards a Universally Accepted Definition,” Carbon Management 2, no. 1 (2011): 61–72. 7. “How the Myth of Food Miles Hurts the Planet,” The Guardian, March 23, 2008, https://www.theguardian.com/ environment/2008/mar/23/food. ethicalliving. 8. “Cleaner than What?” The Economist, December 20, 2014, 116. 9. “World Energy Consumption,” Enerdata, accessed July 7, 2016, Yearbook.enerdata.net.

Cost: How much does it cost?

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10. “How Much Money Does a Person from Nepal Earn or Make a Day?” The Longest Way Home, last updated January 30, 2017, http://www. thelongestwayhome.com/blog/nepal/ how-much-money-does-a-person-fromnepal-earn/. 11. “Das Gehalt als Maurer,” Steuern, Gehalt & Beruf. Accessed November 9, 2016, http://www.steuerklassen.com/ gehalt/maurer/.

17. Ibid., 55. 18. Bird, 58. 19. Berlyn and Fowler, 22. 20. Jean-Louis Schlim, Ludwig II: Traum und Technik, Munich: Buchendorfer Verlag, 2001, 64–84.

12. “Wie viel kostet eine Handwerkerstunde?” Handwerkskammer Region Stuttgart, last updated November 24, 2017, http://www.hwk-stuttgart.de/ artikel/wie-viel-kostet-eine-hand-werkerstunde-67,232,681.html. 13. Charles Harvard Gibbs-Smith, The Great Exhibition of 1851: Victoria & Albert Museum. London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1981, 24. 14. Anthony Bird, Paxton’s Palace. London: Cassell, 1976, 42. 15. Bill Addis, “The Crystal Palace and Its Place in Structural History,” International Journal of Space Structures 21, no. 1 (2016): 3–19, 18. 16. Peter Berlyn and Charles Fowler, The Crystal Palace: Its Architectural History and Constructive Marvels. London: J. Gilbert, 1851, 26.

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Cost: How much does it cost?

Case Study

House

Home

What Is the Modern House?

The rooms that define it are: – kitchen / dining room – living room – bedroom / bathroom A home protects us from the outside world; weather, nature, and the uninvited. A house represents the character of its inhabitants. Rooms are defined by activity: social meeting places (kitchen, dining and living rooms) and private areas (study, library, or bedroom). A house is a place of emotional attachment as well as a sanctuary. It is a nest to protect and retreat to; a place to calm overloaded senses.

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Home

Before industrialization, a home was made up of a multifunctional space that served as a place to sleep, eat, and work. More rooms could be added depending on the wealth of the homeowner. Toilets were outhouses outside the home and washing was done by the well outside or later in the kitchen or, in more affluent homes, in a special wet room. A house could have a garden for growing vegetables and perhaps a goat, a pig, or hens. In especially cold winter months one might find a domestic farm animal inside. These homes protected and provided a place for one’s livelihood. It was not unusual to work from one’s home.

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Client

Coworkers

Client

Office

Home

From anywhere to everywhere, location of place has become to some extent irrelevant.

Networked lifestyles have made activitydefined places nebulous: physical boundaries tagged as “living room” or “working space” or “bedroom” no longer have the same meaning as they did twenty years ago. We are working and living in undefined spaces. From anywhere in the world, it possible to be everywhere in the world. A modern home is made up of multifunctional spaces. Oddly, this is a full circle back to how preindustrial families lived. 134

Case Study: House

Windows in preindustrial homes were often too small to convey enough sunlight especially in late afternoon. For those who could afford it, candles were a means to defy nature.

Modern construction methods and new industrialized materials allow us to create spaces that provide more sunlight and greater spans of free space, resulting in more flexibility. Compared to preindustrial homes, which were smaller, darker, and stuffier, we have more natural and artificial light. No longer dependent on daylight, we are able to work around the clock – a more flexible lifestyle, but with the added danger of no time to stop and rest. Case Study: House

135

The Challenges of a House and Its Brief: Fleischmann House and Atelier

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A deceptively simple brief, an oasis for flexible living and working spaces, one that epitomizes the contemporary zeitgeist of a home as a workplace that is simultaneously used as a retreat.

Case Study: House

The client’s interpretation of an ideal houseworkplace-retreat is a modern villa with breathtaking views of distant mountains and the gentle calm from a pool in a wellmanicured lawn. Shutting down the laptop, the hectic world of commerce disappears; one is left surrounded by a calming and soothing landscape.

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137

Train tracks

-ha

Ha

School

Cluster of single family houses

When the Site Is Not Spectacular, Where Is the Oasis?

138

Unfortunately, the site was an unpromising plot of land on the edge of a small provincial town. The site is enveloped by freestanding houses built by middle-class residents on three sides; the remaining side to the east has a hedged ha-ha – a far cry from the dreamed-of oasis.

Case Study: House

Distilling the Essence of an Oasis

The definition of an oasis is undisrupted calm. In a building, it is unnoticeable regularity, diffused sunlight, a stable horizon, and limited movement. Flexibility, on the other hand, is defined by fast, easy changes where a space has a chameleonlike character, adapting quickly to new needs. Calmness and flexibility are conceptually contradictory, a need for regularity while planning for fast changes.

Case Study: House

Planned on a strict grid, fixed building elements lie within a regular pattern, creating a neutral baseline that allows the activities of daily life to influence changes without disrupting the pattern. In a similar way, traditional board games are based on a grid. A checkerboard for chess or draughts determines how the pieces move. In Snakes and Ladders, a grid serves as the basis of regularity to contain the movement created by the snakes and ladders. The grid in this building determines activity boundaries and, through its regularity, counterbalances life’s vicissitudes.

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Placement on Site

140

By optimizing the west-east depth of the site, the building is situated with an indirect entry; that is, unlike most houses in the area, the entry door does not open onto the street. This creates an additional buffer from the outside world. An open carport faces the street side and together with a series of parallel hedges, there are even more buffers between the house and street. Despite these barriers, none of these elements is closed, so the house is thereby not isolated.

Case Study: House

The building can change from a home with an office into two separate houses or into a single large home. The variations are dependent on the owner’s economic situation or needs.

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Blue: Covered entry way Orange: Services and storage areas Dark Grey: Single height spaces Light Grey: Double height space Green: New trees and hedges White: Terrace

An overall structural grid of 280 centimeter by 280 centimeter is subdivided into a 70centimeter-by-70-centimeter grid, which is found throughout the site to connect the building to landscape elements. The grid clearly defines how each space is used and its relation to the whole building. Planning construction is clear.

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The orientation is north-south with the main entry on the northern side and the garden to the south. Though the street is on the western side, by entering on the northern facade, it is possible to have two entrances. The horizon view on the south side is the unchanging greenery of the garden, while the neighboring houses are kept at a distance with the solid, blank northern facade.

Case Study: House

One house

Office and home

Flexibility: Double to Single House or Work and Living Spaces

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House 1

House 2

The E-shaped, in-situ concrete wall defines the two main spaces. The two spaces can be separated by a movable wall, which is fire- and soundproof. When the wall is sealed, the smaller space, which is onethird of the building, can be used as a completely separate house or, in this case, as an office-atelier. There is no visual disruption since the movable wall follows the grid.

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Foundation built, concrete walls poured in situ

Concrete floors, walls, and roof constructed

Glazing

Structure for sunshading

Louvers, as final building element

A rational construction system helps to reduce construction time and costs. The setting-out grid helps to make the construction easier and, together with a clear construction sequence, reduces the time and costs needed to build.

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From street to entry

From Street Side, the Northern Facade

Case Study: House

The canopied glass entryway protects visitors; leading to the office-atelier door and then to the house. There are minimal openings; the facade is heavy and closed. The metal panels protect the concrete walls from the elements and provide an insulation layer, preventing cold weather bridges from forming.

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Northern Facade: Detail

There are two clearly defined “boxes” or walls that define the boundaries between the entry walkway and the carport. The wall supports the carport roof deck and provides an enclosed space for multiple trash containers for recycling, organic, and general waste. Container openings are on the carport side. Letter boxes for each house are found on the other side in the second wall element. Adhering to the strict grid system, details remain consistent, maintaining flexibility without disrupting the building mass.

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Northern Facade: Details

Case Study: House

At night, the boxes have an integrated lighting system to provide light without additional external lighting fixtures. To create an oasis, a minimum of visual objects are present; integrated or hidden support systems help to keep building clutter within a restrained boundary.

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Southern Facade

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The southern facade is fully glazed, with an external louver structure to control the amount of natural sunlight while keeping the interior free from building clutter. Fully glazed floor-to-ceiling panels can slide open on both levels. When the sliding doors are fully open, the boundaries between inside and outside become blurred. On the upper levels, there is natural cross-ventilation when the glazed doors are open. Case Study: House

Summer night

Summer day

Winter night

Winter day

Northern + Southern Facade + Nature = Energy Concept

In winter, the low sun penetrates deep into the house through the fully glazed southern facade, heating the massive concrete walls on the northern side and the dark slate floor tiles. At night, solar heat is released when the temperature drops. In addition during cold winter days underfloor heating keeps the room temperate.

Case Study: House

In summer, the louvers and the trees help shade the interior to help prevent the house from overheating. The thicker building mass of the northern side cools the building. During the day, open window panels help natural air circulation in the double-height spaces, where the hot air rises. At nighttime, cooler air from the cellar is released, keeping the house temperate.

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Horizontal Detail through South Facade movable glazing

glass

structural steel column steel window frame tied back to building structure louver structure tied back to window frame louver housing above steel window frame moveable fire wall slate floor

Interior

Louver Detail

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Exterior

An important element of the energy concept are the louvers on the southern facade. To keep the inside uncluttered, the louvers are positioned externally. The structural support for the louvers follows the building grid whereby the construction fades into the main building structure. From inside one only sees the continuous horizontal lines of the louvers when they are lowered. Case Study: House

Vertical Detail through South Facade Roof

louver housing louver structural frame tied back at roof level

glazing steel window frame First Floor louver structural frame tied back at floor level

Ground Floor

louver structural frame tied back at ground level water drainage

Interior

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Exterior

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South-West view, showing transition from solid to glazed elements and connection of shading system to main building

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Section North-South

Exterior access

Cellar Plan

Section and Cellar Level, a Place for All Things

Interior access

The cellar level is for storage, archival files, and services. The area is an exact footprint of the house. It is a place for all the things one needs but not always, reducing the objects one uses to essentials on the upper floors. The cellar can be accessed from within the building and from the carport.

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A Limited Palette of Materials

Case Study: House

Visual tranquility is achieved through a limited number of materials and keeping building service elements away from view. For example, there are no radiators or electrical switches or visible outlets to disrupt surfaces. The heating is underfloor, and an i-bus centralized control board eliminates switches. Electrical outlets are integrated in the floor tiles. The color of the building is equally muted; white, gray, and slate. The building recedes into the background and only its inhabitants and their belongings bring color and life. The house itself is neutral, unobtrusive, and tranquil.

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Concrete

Slate

Glass

Metal

The in-situ, fair-faced concrete interior walls, which were part of the client’s brief, are exposed inside but are cladded with metal panels on the exterior to provide insulation as well as to prevent cold bridges.

The flooring throughout, which includes the bathroom as well as the shower, stairs, exterior entryway paving, and the terrace, is comprised of a dark slate tiles. The natural stone is a good conductor for underfloor heating and is excellent for absorbing solar rays for natural heat retention. It also provides a visually neutral background.

Fully transparent glazing is used for the exterior facade; the upper-floor balustrades are plates of glass without metal frames. Translucent white glass is used in all private bathrooms, acting as a visual and water barrier from the shower. Again, there are no metal frames. The upper floor is visually reduced: a plane of glass with white metal panels in the background.

Similar to the metal panels used on the facade, the interior nonstructural walls are comprised of matching white panels. In addition, the suspended ceiling panels with noise-absorbing material helps to reduce sound in an otherwise acoustically loud space. The metal panels provide a neutral background and visually disappear.

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High Quality within Budget

Case Study: House

Higher costs for skilled labor due to the precision of work necessary on-site and a faster construction time is balanced by a limited number of materials used, energyconscious planning, and a strict building grid, all of which help bring expenditures down. More care and time in the planning stage is a counterbalance resulting in a high-end product that does not compromise on quality yet remains within budget. 157

Case Study

Church Vierzehnheiligen

From the Second Council of Nicaea, 787 AD: “The composition of religious imagery is not left to the initiative of artists, but formed upon principles laid down by the Catholic Church and by religious tradition. […] The execution alone belongs to the painter; the selection and arrangement of subject belong to the Fathers.”1 Drawing based on Villard de Honnecourt’s sketch of flying buttresses

Architect or Craftsman

The first known architect was Vitruvius (80– 70 BC –15 BC). His range of work included military and civil engineering, as well as writing a treatise on architecture. Interestingly, architects were not responsible for medieval churches and cathedrals. The provenance of these buildings were in the hands of craftsmen who were highly regulated by the Church, which dictated the design of the building. Villard de Honnecourt, a thirteenth-century master craftsman known to us for his sketchbook, discoursed with scholars and had a knowledge of Latin but took direction from the Church for building decisions.2

Case Study: Church

The distinction between an architect and a craftsman is that the former belongs to a professional body while the latter belongs to a guild. It was in the eighteenth century that architects became recognized members of a profession, and when they began to determine all aspects of a building, including its design. This evolution from builder to architect is clearly illustrated in the building of churches. With the building boom of Baroque churches in southern Germany, some projects were undertaken by architects, while others were still built by traditional craftsmen. It also marks the end of large-scale ecclesiastical buildings dominating architectural output. 159

From Chartres Cathedral, stained glass detail from the panel “Life of Saint Eustace”: Before Eustace can reach land, a lion snatches away his eldest son.

Language of Medieval Symbolism Representation of the Invisible: Hand emerging from clouds, in a gesture of benediction, the thumb and two fingers raised, and surrounded by a cruciform nimbus

Visible World: Concentric or sinuous lines: sky Horizontal and undulating lines: water Tree stalk with two or three leaves: scene on Earth Angel on battlements: Jerusalem Curly hair, short thick beard and tonsure: Saint Peter Bald head and long beard: Saint Paul Woman with veil: Virgin Men with cone-shaped hats: Jews3

Pre-Renaissance Europe was a God-centered world. The cathedral was the spiritual center of a town; its architecture was imbued with symbolism in the form of the sculptural and stained glass imagery. Indeed, one of the building’s important functions was literal communication, especially in its decorative artwork. For its illiterate users, whose understanding of the church’s Latin liturgy was nonexistent, the building served as a visual text of their faith. 160

Case Study: Church

Robert Mark Viollet-le-Duc (1814–79) questioned whether flying buttresses were structural or decorative during his restoration work on Gothic cathedrals. The modern mindset is dismissive of the decorative, and it took the work of Princeton professor Robert Mark in the 1970s

to establish the fact that flying buttresses are key structural elements, thus “rehabilitating” Gothic cathedrals. Before the advent of computer simulations, Professor Mark created crosssection models of Gothic churches with Plexiglas sheets. He added weights to the models to simulate wind loads and then

In contrast to our medieval ancestors, we misread the language of buildings. From our point of view, Gothic flying buttresses were originally seen as ornamentation. Through thermal analysis, it was proven that these buttresses were important structural elements. Without this scientific validation, buttresses were easily dismissed as secondary building elements, since the purely decorative was believed to have less value than a functional element. Case Study: Church

heated them to show stress points. These sheets were slowly cooled and analyzed with a polariscope, which detected patterns of colors that showed how forces are distributed in the structure. Through this method, Mark was able to establish which elements in the cathedral were structural.

In a literate society, written language is essential for the communication of ideas, with images as secondary sources. In contrast, an illiterate society depends on imagery and ornamentation; in a church, it was essential for understanding the complete meaning of their faith. The garnish we dismiss today was a fundamental and important function of a church building.

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Alberti on Beauty and Ornament: A building consists of two elements: beauty and ornament. Beauty is “harmony and concord of all the parts achieved in such a manner that nothing could be added or taken away or altered except for the worse.” Ornament “is a kind of additional brightness and improvement to Beauty. Beauty is something lovely which is proper and innate and diffused throughout the whole, whilst Ornament is something added and

fastened on, rather than proper and innate.”4 This is the seed of our perception on ornamentation, which moved the Renaissance away from the Gothic and “erased” medieval sculptures and imagery in buildings, since they were perceived as ornaments and therefore as nonfunctional.

Saint Peter’s Basilica, Vatican The tomb of Saint Peter is directly under the centralized altar. The design stems from Donato Bramante, Michelangelo, Carlo Maderno, and Gian

In the Renaissance, there began a shift where churches were designed by architects and not craftsmen, especially in Italy. The architect was able to instill humanistic principles from classical Rome, as opposed to ecclesiastical Rome, into the building’s design. The churches represented the intellectual and cultivated aspiration of its patrons; a growing literate and educated class. This elevated the communicative function of religious buildings from medieval storyboard to Neoplatonic symbolism. It did not change the need for the building to be read, only the manner in 162

Lorenzo Bernini. It was begun in 1506 and completed in 1626. The crepuscular rays highlight the centralized placement of the altar.

which it was presented. Thus questions that arose concerning centralized church plans were not about their appropriateness but rather where the altar should be placed, in the center or off to the side. The decision for the altar to be in the center followed Neoplatonic ideals. As God is omnipresent then all lines must converge to the center where the sacrament should be. This is not an image that could be understood by the illiterate; it required a humanistic education.

Case Study: Church

The remains of Rievaulx Abbey in North Yorkshire, dissolved in 1538.

Unrest in Northern Europe

While Northern Italy flourished during the Renaissance, in Northern Europe, questions cropped up as to whether the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope were God’s sole earthly arbitrators. Henry VIII (1491– 1547) of England’s declaration as head of the Church of England and Martin Luther’s (1483–1546) efforts to reform the Church led to a split from Rome. The social and political repercussions changed the nature of ecclesiastical buildings. Protestants did not need imagery nor spatial hierarchies. The Council of Trent (1545–63) was the Pope’s response to this upheaval, which was to solidify the Church’s position on its doctrines and teaching. For architects, the result was the Archbishop of Milan’s Case Study: Church

(Charles Borromeo) treatise Instructiones fabricae et supellectillis ecclesiasticae, the “church builder’s handbook.” The treatise clearly states the rules to clarify the physical parameters of a church in relation to liturgical needs. Henry VIII’s legal acts for the dissolution of monasteries in 1536 and 1541 led to the destruction of ca. 800 Catholic institutions. This process was meant to strengthen the king’s divine rights over Rome and to increase the royal coffers. The result was a destruction of buildings and a purge of medieval Catholicism. It was a dramatic move away from Gothic architecture and iconographic religious imagery. 163

Old Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome

Yes

The Rules

A church should be situated on a hill, be placed higher than other buildings, and be freestanding: no other buildings should abut the church. The size should comply with the ceremonial mass, based on the floor plan area to number of parishioners. There should be a preference for the Latin cross plan, with reference to early Christian Roman basilicas. Centralized circular plans were considered heathenish, consequently humanistic Renaissance church plans were 164

rejected. Facade iconography should be restricted to the Vírgin’s cycle of life. Alberti’s concerns on ornamentation were reflected in the treatise; decorative building elements no longer served their necessary primary function as symbolic purveyors of liturgy.

Case Study: Church

From the Book of Kells

Saint Peters, Rome, Bramante

No

Stained glass, Marientod

Saint Clare

There should be: – No iconography on the side walls – No stained glass with scenic representations – No carvings, inscriptions, or ornamentation that are foreign to the Christian religion – Nothing profane, ugly, sensual, lewd, or obscene – Columns allowed only for structural purposes5 Case Study: Church

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Ravages of war, famine, and plagues: One Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453) German Peasants’ Revolt (1524–25) Thirty Years’ War (1618– 48) Famine (1315–17) Plague (1347–57, 1709–13)

Sketch based on Sebastiaen Vrancx (1573–1647), Soldiers Plundering a Farm during the Thirty Years’ War, 1620

In southern Germany, despite the Renaissance and the enlightened ideas of reformers, Roman Catholic religious fervor grew. Ravaged by war, famine, and plague, the mass population of the southern German states remained uneducated, superstitious, and religious. Traditional pilgrimage destinations, such as Rome or Santiago de Compostela, were too costly and dangerous. A combination of increased religious interest and ecclesiastical promotion of local 166

sites of miracles resulted in a church building boom during the late seventeenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries. The new churches complied with the rules, though in principle the buildings still functioned as storyboards for the mainly illiterate parishioners.

Case Study: Church

Saint Barbara: Her attributes are a tower with three windows, palm, chalice, lightning, and a crown of martyrdom.

The Fourteen Holy Helpers: Saint Agathius Barbara

Feast Day May 7 December 4

Blaise

February 3

Protection against headaches against fever and sudden death against throat illnesses and for domestic animals

Catherine of Alexandria November 25 against sudden death Christopher July 25 against bubonic plague and dangers while traveling Cyriacus August 8 against temptation on the deathbed Denis October 9 against headaches Erasmus June 2 against intestinal ailments Eustace September 20 against family discord George April 23 for the health of domestic animals Giles September 1 against plague, for good confessions, for cripples, beggars, blacksmiths Margaret of Antioch July 20 during childbirth, from devils Pantaleon July 27 for physicians, against cancer and tuberculosis Vitus June 15 against epilepsy, lightning, for domestic animals

Vierzehnheiligen (The Cult of the Fourteen Holy Helpers)

The church building boom relied heavily on pilgrimage sites; places of ecclesiastically approved miracles. A uniquely south German cult of the Vierzehnheiligen, fourteen saints who uniformly protect against diseases and disasters, is said to have appeared during the plague years. In 1445 a shepherd’s son declared he saw the fourteen saints in a field belonging to the Abbey of Langheim. Not long afterward, Case Study: Church

miracles began to happen in the field. A small chapel was begun in 1448 and completed in 1457. During the Peasants’ Revolt, the chapel was destroyed and rebuilt in 1543. The Thirty Years’ War took its toll on the church, and it was clear that without further building works the church would soon be unusable. In 1735 the Abbot of Langheim decided to apply for permission to build a new church. 167

Saint Agathius: His attributes are the palm of martyrdom, a centurion with thorns, and armor with standard.

Saint Margaret: Her attributes are a slain dragon, a hammer, and defeated demons.

The freestanding altar with the fourteen Holy Helpers was the work of a well-known artisan family of Feichtmayr, from Wessobrunn. Credit is given to Johann Michael Feichtmayr the Younger (1709/10-72), his brother Franz Xaver I (1705?– 63), and his nephew Franz Xaver II. The plaster work began in 1764, ending in 1771, by which time both Franz Xaver and the church’s architect, Balthasar Neumann, were already dead. Vierzehnheiligen marks the end of 168

great eighteenth-century church works in southern Germany. The altar, with its unique sculptural artistry, brings to life the holy helpers; their symbolic attributes make them easily recognizable to visiting pilgrims. It provides and completes the dynamic focus of the architectural space.

Case Study: Church

Langheim Abbey in 1800

Complex Contractual Matters

Although the miracle took place on the fields of Langheim Abbey, the parish church of Bad Staffelstein was under the auspices of the Bishop of Bamberg. A contract from 1450 between the parish church, which built the first chapel, stated that one-third of its income was to go to parish coffers and two-thirds to the abbey. In 1735 Abbot Stephan Mösinger applied to the Bishop Friedrich Carl von Schönborn for permission to build. Mösinger’s proposal, which was designed by Gottfried Heinrich Krohne, a Protestant from Weimar, was immediately rejected by the bishop, who found the design too Protestant. The need for financial clarity added to the delay. Who Case Study: Church

would pay for the new church, the abbot or the bishop? By 1741 a new contract was drafted. The abbey would be responsible for the complete building costs, and the annual onethird income would be reduced to 50 fl francs for the first nine years and thereafter to 100 fl francs. The catch was the right to grant building permission was to remain with the bishop.6

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Abbot Stephan Mösinger

Architect Gottfried Heinrich Krohne

Which Architect?

The abbot naively expected that as the sole payee of the venture, his appointment of the architect would then be accepted. Krohne was asked to submit new plans, which were again rejected by the bishop. It was clear to the abbot that his architect would never be granted permission to build. A compromise was reached, Krohne, backed by the abbot, was appointed site architect. The bishop asked his court architect of Bamberg, Johann Jakob Michael Küchel, to submit plans. His submission was also rejected by the bishop.

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Bishop Friedrich Carl von Schönborn

Architect Balthasar Neumann

The Bishop’s Architect

Case Study: Church

Balthasar Neumann (1687–1753) was Bishop Friedrich Carl von Schönborn’s civil engineer, military engineer, head of building works, and court architect for the bishopric in Würzburg, where the bishop had his headquarters. Neumann began his career as a bell and cannon founder. Talented in mathematics, his abilities were quickly recognized by the bishop, who promoted him with a variety of projects, ranging from street works to fortification and building works. At the time of difficulties between the bishop and the abbot, Neumann was an established architect in Würzburg. Though Neumann hesitated to take on the commission due to a lack of time, he nonetheless submitted a design. 171

Schlösser Augustusburg/Falkenlust, Brühl, 1740–46

Heilige Stiege der Kreuzbergkirche, Bonn, 1746– 51

Pfarrkirche St. Michael, Hofheim, 1747–54

Schloss, Veitshöchheim, 1753 Kloster Oberzell, Zell, 1744– 60

Pfarrkirche St. Paulin, Trier, 1734 –57

Würzburg* Laurentiuskirche, Dirmstein, 1742–46

Garten Pavillion, Randersacker, 1750

Residenz, Schwetzingen, 1752

Schloss, Werneck, 1733– 45 Kirche zur Heiligsten Dreifaltigkeit, Gaibach, 1740– 45 Kreuzkapelle, Kitzingen, 1741–45

Wallfahrtskirche Maria, Limbach, 1751– 55

Residenz, Karlsruhe, 1750– 51 Residenz, Stuttgart, 1747– 49

Balthasar Neumann’s building projects running parallel to Vierzehnheiligen (1743–72) and the distance from Würzburg.

Stiftsrathaus, Ellwangen, 1748– 50 Abteikirche, Neresheim, 1747– 92

*Residenz, Würzburg, 1720– 44, Wallfahrtskirche Käpelle, Würzburg, 1748– 50

The Architect’s Office

Unlike Neumann’s contemporary, Johann Dientzenhofer, who moved to each project site and remained there to completion, Neumann worked in his offices in Würzburg. He had various projects in different locations. As a building director, Neumann appointed site architects, who would supervise works under his direction on-site. This allowed him the freedom to take on more projects. It was not very different from modern practices, which are not 172

site-bound and have a supporting site office directed by a main office. An interesting point for the design submissions for Vierzehnheiligen was that drawings were submitted from offices in Bamberg (Küchel), Würzburg (Neumann), and Weimar (Krohne).

Case Study: Church

From Neumann’s project list, it is possible to approximate how long each journey took, assuming the route he took was similar to contemporary bicycle paths.

Starting from Würzburg to:

Despite support from his office, it was still necessary for Neumann to visit his various sites to supervise, check progress, speak to the client, conduct meetings, or make presentations.

wheel carriage, which traveled an average of 2 miles per hour, 28 miles per day (3.22 km/hr, 45 km/day).7 This is assuming an average terrain, calculated for a longdistance drive, which included detours, food, and rest for the animals.

To understand the scope of his work in relation to how much traveling time he needed, it is important to note that his main mode of transportation was horse and carriage. The standard was four horses and a fourCase Study: Church

Bonn Brühl Dirmstein Ellwangen Gaibach Hofheim Karlsruhe Kitzingen Limbach Neresheim Randersacker Schwetzingen Stuttgart Trier Veitshöchheim Werneck Zell

312 km 332 km 168 km 116 km 29.2 km 138 km 184 km 20.1 km 85.3 km 151 km 7.5 km 149 km 175 km 328 km 9.6 km 31.8 km 9.3 km

7.5 days 8 days 4 days 3 days 9 hours 4 days 5 days 6.5 hours 2.5 days 4 days 2.5 hours 4 days 4.5 days 7.5 days 3 hours 10 hours 3 hours

With so many projects on-site, it was conceivable that Neumann spent days traveling from one site to another working in his carriage between meetings. 173

21 feet

21 feet

SE 76,8 Neumann’s original plan

From his list of projects at the time, it is clear to see how busy Neumann was. Though the original plans were hastily produced, the bishop approved of the drawings and Krohne was appointed site architect. Neumann was busy with other sites and did not watch over the initial works. Krohne, left to his own devices and in agreement with Abbot Mösinger, changed Neumann’s plans and moved the foundation 10 meters to the east, making the new plans closer to Krohne’s original submission.

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During a site visit from Neumann and the bishop, the changes were discovered. Needless to say, the project was halted. The bishop was furious, and Krohne was fired. Despite the fact that raw materials for the building came from the abbey’s own resources – stone and lime from its quarry, wood from its forests – the work was too far advanced to justify additional costs for rebuilding. What was built had to remain. Under considerable pressure from the bishop, Neumann had to salvage the project and rework it on the basis of what was already built. Küchel was appointed the new site architect.

Case Study: Church

SE 83, Revised plan

Setting-Out Grid

The plan diagrams stem from Richard Teufel’s comprehensive research into the building of Vierzehnheiligen. The original plan, which Krohne should have based his work on (SE 76) is from 1742. Teufel clearly shows the geometry based on squares and a reoccurring grid of 21 feet by 21 feet.9 Teufel’s diagram based on the plan from 1744 (SE 83) shows the changes after Krohne’s intervention, with the transept further to the east, and Neumann’s reworking of the interior geometry, which was composed of ellipses, resulting in a realignment of the church’s interior geometry with a focus on the elliptical altar space.

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Focus on communication from the altar in Martin Luther’s Schloßkapelle Hartenfels: Luther was opposed to the idea of the Holy Mass as a memorial of the Last Supper and to the

reenactment of Jesus’ sacrifice; therefore, the altar is unassuming and does not need to be a marker of importance.

Focus on the altar at Saint Peter’s Tomb and Altar, Rome: In contrast, in the rite of communion in the Catholic Mass, the bread is the body, and the wine the blood, of Christ; therefore, the altar needs to be a sacred place.

The Underlying Problem: The Altar

Following the Counter-Reformation ordinance, the most important area of a church was the crossing of the transept and nave. The Old Saint Peter’s Basilica in Rome was the stipulated precedent for all new church buildings. Saint Peter’s tomb is located at the intersection of the nave and the transept, as is the altar. In a pilgrimage church, the altar would be located on the spot where the miracle took place. 176

In contrast, Martin Luther’s Schloßkapelle Hartenfels (1544), built under Luther’s instruction, was the Protestant precedent for future church buildings. The position of the altar was based on how easily the congregation could hear the minister. It was not in itself a holy place – an important underlying difference in how buildings are used and read by parishioners.

Case Study: Church

East

Krohne’s

Altar

10 meter shift

Place of Miracle

West

SE 82

Krohne’s 10-meter shift moved the altar to somewhere in the nave. It was no longer the meeting point of the transept and nave. As a Protestant, Krohne would not have placed much importance on the position of the altar. However, for a Catholic, the altar’s position was paramount. It was where a miracle had taken place; it was not a symbolic marker.

Case Study: Church

It is clear why the bishop did not approve Krohne’s plan. Neumann had to correct this within the already built footprint and foundation. He created a new internal geometric order that rectified the position of the altar and simultaneously created a spatial hierarchy and direction with structural clarity.

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Altar

SE 82, Original plan and circulation

Altar

SE 83, Revised plan and circulation

Geometry and Circulation

In the original plan, there were three ways to enter, which met at the point where the nave and transept crossed, and was also the focal point of the church: the place of miracle, the altar.

instead one is expected to turn back. This change in direction forced visitors to move into the church, aided by the oval-formed space that gives both focus and direction.

With the shift 10 meters to the east, the north–south axis met the east–west axis somewhere in the middle of the nave. In addition, the points of entry on the east and west no longer led one directly to the altar; 178

Case Study: Church

North

East

Lübke Plan, 1890 Final and built layout which shows the altar as the focus

West

South

Ellipse versus Circle

Though the form is a basilica, the concentric focus of the main altar is suspiciously circular. The ellipse remains directional, east to west, and the altar is not circular, it is symmetrical only on an east-west axis. The fourteen saints each have a prominent and individual position that takes away from the central focus. One must move around the altar to see all the saints. In keeping to a circular geometry, there is no one position that is better than another. The advantage is Case Study: Church

that each pilgrim was given a unique view; and with the possibility of seeing the altar from all sides, this insured that worshippers moved from one saint to the next. This also allowed more visitors and, as each saint had its own special collection box, meaning greater possibilities for donations. This was important for the church’s revenues, as it was dependent on the number of worshippers who visited and left alms. 179

A procession of pilgrims approaching Vierzehnheiligen with Banz Abbey in the background. Sketch based on an unknown artist’s watercolor from the nineteenth-century.

Financial Importance

Pilgrimage churches were a good source of income, and a saint’s feast days allowed a church to celebrate special masses in honor of the saint. Although there was a rise in literacy and greater access to printed materials, the majority of the population of eighteenthcentury southern Germany was still illiterate. For those fortunate enough to read, a high percentage of the available printed works were religious in nature.10 The

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Church was also an important social focal point. It was fashionable to join religious brotherhoods, where pilgrimages were promoted as a popular undertaking for families. Pilgrimages were a means for a social outing and a holiday for the family.11 It is no wonder that the Abbot of Langheim saw economic potential in replacing his war-torn chapel with a new church in Bad Staffelstein.

Case Study: Church

The church is set on a hill away from neighboring buildings, basilica in form, and reflecting the size of visitors.

Exterior

Case Study: Church

Vierzehnheiligen sits on a hill. For the pilgrim who sees the church from a distance and walks up to it, there is no hint of what is inside. The windows are constructed so that from the outside one cannot peer in, as stipulated by Borromeo: “Windows should be constructed as high as possible and in such a way that a person standing outside cannot look inside.”12 The classical facade has no ornamentation, and it is clear where the entrances are. This again followed Borromeo, who gave practical advice on how to solve problems of entry door numbers based on the size of the church.

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The Interior

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The Catholic mass, in contrast to the Protestant service, relies heavily on sensual experiences. In the Catholic communion, the bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus; it is not symbolic. The use of incense, choral music, and controlled lighting (with candles) are necessary elements of the mass. To this end the building is not a decorated stage but a glimpse into heaven. The exterior of the church does not belie the interior. The inside is sacred and otherworldly; it smells, looks, feels, and sounds different. It is not a representation. From a purely rational standpoint, there are endless contradictions, but these buildings were not built on the principles of modern function. These buildings were based on the unwavering belief in the Catholic faith, which tried to reassert itself, for modern minds, with a conflicting combination of rational thinking and superstition.

Case Study: Church

“It was not laziness that built rococo churches and let peasants cling to their saints and their holidays; it was very different understanding of man’s life on earth and the place of work in it. The peasant knew himself to be in the hands of higher powers, and this knowledge made him uneasy about attempts to use a merely human science to secure human existence.”13

A Church’s Function?

Masses broke down a relentless workday and a spectacular church was a refuge to better understand the world around one. Detailed sketch based on a lithograph of the Blutritter Procession in Weingarten from 1865

It is not simply a large hall where moral lessons are expounded. A Baroque church was an entrance to heaven, an earthly binding point for society. It was the single building in a village where all members of society could congregate; the aristocrat, the clergy, the merchant, and the peasant. Within the building, as in heaven, everyone was equally judged based on their ethical and moral behavior not on their status of birth. The building’s function was to make sure this message was clearly understood by those who entered. This extended to the processions that cut through the countryside, transforming the landscape into ribbons of pathways that connected church to church, village to church, land to church.14

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A full-body reliquary shrine of Saint Bonifacius in the Basilica Ottobeuren

The lessons of morality and earthly fragility were clearly seen in the building. Throughout southern Germany’s Baroque churches, there are reminders of decay and ruin. Macabre full-size reliquaries of skeletons dressed in finery emphasize fleeting life and its ultimate inglorious end. The invisible soul rises to Heaven to live in eternity or down to the terrors of Hell. Their very graphic nature highlights that even a saint, the skeleton dressed in fine clothes, does

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not defy decay. One’s station in life is temporal, so whether one is a peasant or a duke, the physical end is the same. What counts is how one is morally judged during this short time on Earth. The importance of this message dominated eighteenthcentury Catholic lives in southern Germany.

Case Study: Church

Medallions

Rosary Church to Pilgrim

Candles

Prayer cards

Church, State, and the Economy

The greater monasteries owned most of the land in village communities and controlled the local economy. Day-to-day spiritual rituals and feast days that dominated yearly calendars marking seasonal changes were set by the Church. A village that was part of a pilgrimage destination had additional feast days, which added to ecclesiastical prosperity. It was conceivable that half the year would be devoted to religious holidays.15 For hard-working peasants, these “holidays” brightened their otherwise monotonous lives. The church benefited from these holidays, unlike the state, whose finances depended on the output of the peasants; the state saw religious holidays becoming a dangerous waste of time. Case Study: Church

Small villages competed to be a pilgrimage destination, where extravagant architectural gems cropped up. Monastic orders encouraged craftsmen by providing education and employment. Pilgrimages created not only a source of income but acted as a form of dissemination of the Catholic faith. The cost of building was not important as long as the results attracted pilgrims. As the ideals of the Enlightenment were embraced by state rulers, they saw religious rituals in daily life as backward and reactionary.16

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Construction Industry

The Benedictine abbey in Wessobrunn trained and supported the craftsmen responsible for the important stucco works of Baroque churches. These craftsmen were in high demand and worked throughout southern Germany and in other areas of Europe.

out the Baroque period, were well known and sought after. Unlike Balthasar Neumann, they moved and conducted work onsite. Dominikus was a master builder and plasterer, while his older brother Johann Baptist was a painter and plasterer. Note that neither was titled as an architect.

Wessobrunn craftsmen Dominikus and Johann Baptist Zimmermann, two brothers who created churches and palaces through-

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Engraving of Kloster Wessobrunn in 1701, shows the extent of its dominance in the area.

They were responsible for the pilgrimage chapel Wies Kirche, built from 1745 to 1754 for the Steingaden Abbey. Wies is a stellar example of Baroque craftsmanship and perfectionism. This, of course, influenced the cost of construction, which was nearly five times more expensive than its allotted budget. Steingaden Abbey suffered greatly to pay for the extravagant chapel. Reforms imposed by the Bavarian court resulted in the secularization of Wies Kirche, and it was slated for demolition in 1804. Petitions during the period of 1811 to 1830 saved it from destruction.

Case Study: Church

This shows how deeply grassroots Catholics identified with pilgrimages and their churches despite the high costs of building local abbeys. It also stresses that the movement of pilgrims through a landscape was a visual reminder of Christian piety that permeated everyday life. Without a pilgrimage church, this movement would cease.17 The enlightened and reformminded Bavarian court could not countermand the strength of this Catholic revival nor the assertion of pilgrimages as a representation of Catholic identity.

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Materials

Apart from locally available materials, the interiors were richly ornamented with stucco figures, reliefs, frescoes, and faux marble. Scagliola is a method imported from Italy to create marble finishes using a plaster-based “dough” mixed with pigments. Originally it was assumed that this method was used to avoid expensive importing of marble slabs, but research has shown that scagliola is more expensive and required a high degree of technical ability. In a similar vein, the golden highlights were created with thin layers of gold leaf. It was not a question of authenticity of material but to create materials more authentic than what was available. This allowed for absolute perfection: each color was chosen; texture and forms were 188

without compromise. Builders were no longer restricted to use materials that happened to be available but which did not suit. There was no hindrance to achieve a faultless composition, except the limitations of individual craftsmen. The columns are perfectly matched throughout, in scale, color, and tone. This harmony was only possible through artifice, curiously alluding to the fact that the interiors were closer to perfection than nature itself.

Case Study: Church

Windows: Real and Painted

Sunlight and candlelight were the only sources of light in a Baroque church. The deeply inset clerestory windows and vaulted ceilings allow sunlight to be reflected off the white curving forms, creating a subdued and even light. Frescoed windows served as a glimpse into Heaven, which mortals could only dream of but never see in their lifetime. According to Karsten Harries, “White walls and pillars of the interior absorb this light (sunlight), become immaterial and radiant. Light and matter fuse as stone and stucco are transformed into an ethereal substance.”18 Case Study: Church

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Candles and mirrors to highlight a room

Gold to highlight a person

Gold and Candlelight

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The eighteenth century glittered with gold. Gowns and waistcoats made from cloth with golden threads illuminated the wearer. At a time when society was based on court standards, well-made impressions were essential. Clothing that reflected light helped the wearer to be noticed in the crowd. Similarly, gilded accents on statuary and gilded frames were necessary techniques to bring light to the works of art. The main source of light was sunlight during the day, but by dusk, there was only candlelight, which was exploited by mirrors or golden accents to capture and distribute light. .

Case Study: Church

Capturing sunlight by indirect incandescent reflection to illuminate a space

Gilding to highlight an object

Curved ceilings and indirectly reflected sunlight provided a room with luminous light, creating a far more extraordinary atmosphere than direct sunlight, which was after all available to everyone. The techniques used to capture and use indirect light created an otherworldly effect adding to the specialness of a space, especially in a church.

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Our prejudices prevent us from fully accepting a Baroque church as more than overdecorated opulence; as a place that was seen as a real entrance to Heaven and only accessible for the deserving. Taking the church as more than a metaphor is difficult for the modern man. Its innovation lies in creating spaces so perfect that natural materials had to be replaced by well-crafted, man-made simulations. The arrangement of every element in the building is carefully thought out with regard to geometry, liturgical restrictions, use of materials, and lighting.

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Vierzehnheiligen’s architect was no longer a master craftsman, and his role as director of works distanced him from the workers who produced the building. As professional distance developed and more rational ideas took hold, these factors sealed the fate for ecclesiastical buildings as a source of original and ingenious architecture at a time when the reforms of Enlightenment rulers put an end to the Church’s dominance in society and with it a change in focus from the ethereal to the material.

Case Study: Church

Footnotes

1. Emile Mâle, The Gothic Image. New York: Harper, 1972, 392. 2. Ibid., 393. 3. Ibid., 2. 4. Rudolf Wittkower, Architectural Principles in the Age of Humanism. New York: W.W. Norton, 1971, 33. 5. Hanno-Walter Kruft, A History of Architectural Theory. London: Zwemmer,1994, 93–104. 6. Richard Teufel, Vierzehnheiligen. Lichtenfels: H.O. Schulze, 1957, 19.

11. Karsten Harries, The Bavarian Rococo Church. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983, 203. 12. Matthew E. Gallegos, “Charles Borromeo and the Catholic Tradition: Regarding the Design of Catholic Churches,” Sacred Architecture, no. 9 (2014): 14–18, here, 15. 13. Harries, 201. 14. Mark Foster, Catholic Revival in the Age of Baroque: Religious Identity in South West Germany 1550 –1750. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2004, 81.

7. “Postkutsche,” Wikipedia, accessed November 14, 2016, https:de.wikipedia. org/wiki/Postkutsche.

15. Harries, 200.

8. “SE” an abbreviation for “Sammlung Eckert” in Würzburg. Richard Teufel uses their numbering system to distinguish plans.

17. Foster, 81.

16. Ibid.

18. Harries, 73.

9. Richard Teufel, “Der geometrische Aufbau der Pläne der Wallfahtskirche Vierzehnheiligen,” Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 10, no. 4/5 (1941–42): 163–87. 10. Derek Beales and Edward Dawson, Prosperity and Plunder: European Catholic Monasteries in the Age of Revolution, 1650 –1815. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2003), 28.

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Case Study

Furniture Patient Bed

Statutory versus Private Health Insurance Statutory

Private

Rich

Poor

High Premium

Low Premium Premium according to risk and benefits agreed upon

Contributions according to level of income Solidarity Principle

Equivalent Principle Benefits according to contract

Benefits according to need

Healthy

Sick Cost Transfer

The medical profession in Germany is based on universal healthcare. The quality and standards for patients is high, though it is not profitable for doctors. In 2008 an insurance company calculated that a doctor could only afford to spend eight minutes per compulsory insured patient without making a loss.1 The German system allows one to opt out of the statutory health program through private insurance, which is more expensive and has greater financial benefits for the doctor and more personalized care for the patient.

Case Study: Furniture

Reimbursement

Creating a two-tier system that limits the number of public patients and increases private patients practices can become more profitable. To entice privately insured patients, a practice must invest in highly technical and professional care within an attractive setting. To flourish under these conditions, moving a clinic to new premises requires careful planning. The construction time must be short, with limited interruption to patient care, otherwise the financial consequences would be prohibitive.

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Background

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A gastroenterological clinic founded by a partnership of doctors has the aim to be the first outpatient clinic to perform ambulatory endoscopic examinations to shorten patient waiting time and to offer specialized care, in contrast to hospital care, where waiting time is long and specialized staff is limited. The clinic had to be completed within a short construction time, notwithstanding technically challenging requirements and a smooth transition for patients and doctors. The closing of the old practice and the opening of new had to be accomplished with as little disruption as possible. Delays could adversely affect financial gain.

Case Study: Furniture

Clinic Plan

Case Study: Furniture

A newly built tower with a circular floor plan is the site of the clinic. To facilitate the limited construction time, walls and storage are a single unit that follows the radial structural grid. Most of the work was done off-site and quickly constructed on-site, allowing work on other parts of the clinic to be done simultaneously, thereby reducing time on-site. A valuable asset is the panorama views; to keep this intact, all rooms had louvered glazing on the corridor side. When the rooms are not in use, the louvers are opened to allow natural light and visual access. This was important. Visual transparency linking inside to outside removed a clinical and sterile atmosphere that is normally found in hospitals. 197

For patients and medical staff, there is a clear circulation path, to reduce unnecessary loss of time for the caregivers and an easy-to-follow route for the patients.

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White: Reception, waiting areas

Gray: Patients’ recovery area

Dark green: Doctor’s office, with a small anteroom for taking blood samples and blood pressure

Light green: Medical staff rooms, kitchen, and administration

Light blue: Surgical procedure rooms for endoscopic examinations. The rooms are sterilized and require surgical robes.

Blue: Technical rooms for chemotherapy and instrument sterilization

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Patients’ Recovery Room

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The final stop after the endoscopic examination is the recovery room. During the procedure, which takes an average of ten to fifteen minutes, the patients are fully anesthetized. The patients are awake within minutes of the procedure, but are still under the influence of medication and are unable to walk without assistance. The patients are led to recovery beds, where they have time to rest and allow the anesthesia to wear off.

Case Study: Furniture

Day to day: recovery room

Special occasions: receptions

Conferences: live procedures

Multipurpose Recovery Room

The doctors planned not only to provide ambulatory nonhospitalized care but to provide other medical care professionals with an opportunity to observe surgical procedures with live-screen feeds. It was expected that the recovery room could convert to: – a viewing room – a reception for special events – a space for medical meetings or conferences – patient recovery

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Limited Space

Due to spatial restrictions, there was not enough space for beds and a conference room. Beds had to be stored away, quickly transforming the recovery room to a reception, conference, or viewing room. The beds had to fulfill several crucial requirements: – They needed to be lower than conventional hospital beds, for nurses to help woozy patients sit down onto the bed rather that to help them up. – For patients’ privacy during their recovery, individual screens are necessary. – They must be easy to store when not needed, especially when the room is used for other purposes. – They must have storage for patients to keep their belongings in.

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Nothing on the market fulfilled these requirements.

“off the shelf”

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Requirements

The challenge: to create a single piece of furniture able to fulfill all the needs of the patent and caretaker. No single off-the-shelf system worked. The beds needed to be designed and produced simultaneously during the clinic’s complete construction period. As an essential part of the clinic’s working process, the beds had to be in place at opening. The cost of production would need to be within the framework of hospital bed prices.

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Ideas

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The bed is easy to stack and store. The rounded form follows the contours of the sleeping individual.

The leg construction is a simple click-in mechanism found in camping tables and benches common in German beer gardens.

Solution

Based on a combination of simple daily objects, a solution was found using elements of existing systems and recombining them to create an affordable yet specialized bed.

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Following the principles of a windsurfer, the personal screen is a frame with a taut cloth. The curved form and its attachment to the bed, helps keep the space from becoming maze-like and unpleasant. In comparison to standard screens, which are just under two meters tall, the lower screens create a cocoon-like nest for dormant patients.

Case Study: Furniture

A sliding basket under the bed keeps the patient's belongings. This is especially necessary when patients need to disrobe or have bags with them. The clinic does not need to have separate changing rooms or lockers.

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It is easy to move, like a wheelbarrow, with the wheels in the front, and stationary legs in the back. When all four legs are on the ground, the bed remains stationary without the need for an additional braking system. On a day-to-day basis, the wheelbarrow solution makes it easy for cleaners and for quick changes in how the beds are arranged in a room.

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Case Study: Furniture

Costs and Scale Model

Case Study: Furniture

Reassembling parts of existing technology kept costs down despite a limited production number. Forming new fixings or castings only makes sense if there is a large production output; otherwise the tools necessary to create the pieces will end up costing more than the objects they are creating. A scale model was made to facilitate production. The model shows the necessary individual pieces and the interface between different contractors: metalworkers for the frame and structure of the bed, and upholsterers for the screen and mattress.

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From Production to Site

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Around twenty beds were manufactured, a work package that ran parallel to clinic construction. From initial design, working drawings, and construction supervision, the complete process for the clinic took less than eight months. The bed included in this process was one of several off-site tender packages that ran simultaneously to work on location.

Case Study: Furniture

In Use

Case Study: Furniture

Each bed is a cocoon for a recovering patient. From one side easily monitored by healthcare staff but protected from public view from the waiting room. The curved screen keeps each patient screened from other patients without creating a claustrophobic space.

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Scale and Purpose

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Despite being a single piece of furniture, it compliments the space and serves a necessary purpose. The scale of each bed in the room is low and individual even though it is repetitive. The beds do not dominate and overwhelm the room; it remains identifiable as its own area. The light and view from the window is visible from the core corridor without compromising a patient’s privacy. Furniture becomes an integral part of a room’s spatial design. Case Study: Furniture

Footnotes

1. “Barmer-GEK-Arztreport: Acht Minuten pro Patient,” Pharmazeutische Zeitung Online. Published April 2010, https://www.pharmazeutischezeitung.de/index.php?id=32450.

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Case Study

Public Building Landtag Baden-Württemberg

Stuttgart1 Area: 207.4 km2 Density: 3,100 inhabitants/km2 Compared to: Detroit Area: 370.2 km2 Density: 1,900 inhabitants/km2 Manchester Area: 115.65 km2 Density: 4,716 inhabitants/km2

Three industrial cities in different stages of urban growth and decay: Manchester, a city from the Industrial Revolution, is in the process of urban revival after decades of decline. Stuttgart and Detroit are both cities with heavy economic reliance on the automotive industry, however in different stages of development. Detroit is in decline, while Stuttgart is economically stable and viable. All three cities are similar in their industrial importance, are culturally provincial, and have a similar population size, though they differ in population density.

Stuttgart is the state capital of BadenWürttemberg, Germany. It is not especially cosmopolitan despite its high percentage of foreigners – 40 percent, making it the largest in Germany. At the same time, it has one of the lowest crime rates compared to other major German cities due to its economic stability. A strong industrial base, which is led by the automotive industry, provides the main source of economy and, unlike Detroit, Stuttgart is financially viable. Given its physical size, population, political stability, and cultural and social status; it is a comfortable provincial city, not unlike many other cities worldwide.

Case Study: Public Building

Germany

Stuttgart

In a span of less than a hundred years, the city was a capital of a kingdom within an empire, a state capital within a short-lived republic in addition to an equally short-lived totalitarian state, and, to date, the state capital in a federal republic. Through a whirlwind of political changes happening within a lifetime, how would its citizens define their postwar parliament building?

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Reichstag, Berlin, 1894

In the twentieth century, Stuttgart’s citizens, like most Germans, had lived through several dramatic political changes in a single lifetime. Each change brought with it a new form of government, each represented by a specific building style.

German seats of government: Capitol Building: Reichstag Building 1894–1933 Chancellery Building: Reichskanzlei 1871–1939 New Reichskanzlei 1939– 45 Political status of Germany: pre-1919 German Reich II, head of state: emperor 1919– 33 Weimar Republic, head of state: president 1933– 45 German Reich III, head of state: dictator 1945– 49 Postwar Allied Occupation 1949– present Federal Republic of Germany, head of state: president Political status of Stuttgart in modern times: 1918– 45 Capital of Württemberg 1945– 54 Capital of Württemberg-Baden Since 1952 Capital of Baden-Württemberg

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Election posters from the Weimar Republic Communist: “End this System”

Social Democrats: “This is the enemy of democracy, get rid of it, vote Social Democrats”

National Socialists: “End Corruption! Vote National Socialists!”

What Is Democracy?

The definition of democracy and its integration into a political system is complex. The main tenet is universal suffrage: the right to vote. When the concept first appeared in 5 BC Athens, all eligible citizens were allowed to vote. Noneligible citizens were women, slaves, foreigners, nonlandowners, and males under twenty. This left only 15 percent of the inhabitants who were eligible.

Case Study: Public Building

More than 1700 years later, the original American Constitution did not give the right to vote to women and slaves. Universal male suffrage only appeared in France in 1848, despite the abolition of the monarchy in 1789. Nor do popular elections guarantee a democratic result; a case in point is the fall of the Weimar Republic and the rise of National Socialism in 1930s Germany. Whether architecture can embody political ideals is an issue that has long occupied architects as well as the societies for whom they build.

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Pankokweg 1– 5, Stuttgart, Architect: P. P. Oud

Universal Housing and Universal Equality

The Deutscher Werkbund’s housing project, the Weissenhofsiedlung in Stuttgart, organized by Mies van der Rohe in 1927, was planned as the pinnacle of modern architecture: an architecture to free workers from less-than-ideal living conditions. The goal was to build without economic waste to achieve the maximum from a minimum, resulting in cheaper and faster construction, with housing that improved the quality of life. New uses of interior spaces were to make the management of living easier and more efficient.

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Case Study: Public Building

Roof terrace

House no. 14–15, Rathenaustrasse 1–3, Stuttgart, Architects: Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret

Flats

Entry/ Maid’s room

The political agenda was to use the Siedlung project as a projection of the Weimar Republic’s social and cultural aims. Stuttgart would become a more prominent international city, with efficient, modern new housing despite high postwar unemployment and rising rental costs. Mies van der Rohe and the Werkbund wanted to have prominent and international architects for the building projects to highlight a new modern form of building. Resistance came from local Stuttgart architects who were not invited. There was criticism concerning the inclusion of architects from nations they just fought a war against. The organizers did not see the Siedlung as Case Study: Public Building

a signal for social reform; politics was not part of their agenda.2 The flats were not created to increase housing but to embrace a new way of living. Le Corbusier as a Swiss national was acceptable despite his French background. This building epitomizes the quintessential goals of the project and its ultimate failings.

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save space and create new divisions were all principles that are apparent in the interior of this building.

Le Corbusier based his furniture-as-space-dividers on the remarkably ingenious interiors of wagon-lits. The multiple functions of one wall – a bed, seating, storage, and wash area – and the use of sliding doors to

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

House 1

Living/Dining/Sleeping Study Kitchen Bath WC Partitions Storage unit

House 2

2

2

5

5 7

3

4

7

7

1

7

6

7

6

A worker’s home was used as benchmark for new living standards; this included central heating, an indoor bathroom, and a toilet. The architects took it upon themselves to design flats with built-in furniture and to create movable pieces in new forms to free workers from cumbersome and restrictive furnishings.3 This allowed them to integrate new fabrication methods, with innovative construction and materials.

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7

1

7

1

3

4

Instead of traditional brick structures with stucco or wooden frame buildings with tiled roofs, the new architecture consisted of concrete and steel frames with flat, tarpapered roofs. These light materials were less expensive than traditional materials. The fast construction time, using untested materials, inadequate site supervision (since architects were not contracted for this service), and the refusal of skilled workers to work on the projects with materials they considered a threat to their livelihood led to less-than-optimal results and delays.4 Case Study: Public Building

The wall units and sliding doors allowed for spatial flexibility; inhabitants could decide how they wanted to use their spaces and to create new rooms based on immedi-

ate needs. It is conceptually different from a space dictating its use. This required a change in how one lives, which for many was beyond their scope of imagination and needs.

Closet

Moving wall

Closet

Shelves

Hides bed

Bed moves out

The Weissenhofsiedlung, like the Weimar Republic, with similar high aspirations, was ultimately unable to achieve its target. Society could not keep up with the progressive ideals of the Weimar Republic nor to living standards changes made by the new housing in the Weissenhofsiedlung.

Case Study: Public Building

The workers did not understand nor desire new furniture. They clung to the traditional as a talisman of social achievement. In addition, the flats were 30 percent more expensive to rent than those locally available. This was in a price range beyond a worker’s salary. As a consequence, the apartments were more attractive to higher-income intellectuals, who were able to afford them.5 In Stuttgart, the failure to coordinate ideals with reality would suspend democratic politics and housing for nearly two decades.

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Postwar Stuttgart

Like many industrial cities in Europe, Stuttgart was destroyed by wartime bombing. From 1944 to the end of the war, there were fifty-three bombing raids, which resulted in the destruction of 68 percent of the city center.6 The physical ruin mirrored the political situation, with the complete annihilation of National Socialism. Germany’s predominant postwar goal was to rebuild itself as a political democracy. Regional states were given greater power, and a federal form of national government was established. Stuttgart as capital to the new state of Baden-Württemberg, with its citizens represented in a new democratic parliament, prepared itself for a new era.

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Democracy and the Rights of Citizens

The Right to Prestige and Responsibility Soane’s Bank of England 1788–1833

The Right to Culture Schinkel’s Altes Museum 1825– 30

Eighteenth-Century Neoclassicism as a Stepping Stone to Democracy

The Renaissance rediscovery of Vitruvius’s Ten Books of Architecture reestablished the main principles of classical architecture: A structure must be solid (firmitas), useful (ultilitas), and beautiful (venustas). It should be an imitation of nature, the perfection of which is the human body. This was visualized by Leonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man, who is drawn within a circle and a square to underline perfect proportional order and man’s innate harmony with cosmic order. Eighteenth-century European thinkers found these principles rational and republican, believing they would lead to an architecture that could be understood on a universal level.

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US Capitol Building

“Democratic” Architecture? How is Democracy Represented by a Building?

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US Capitol The US Secretary of State, Thomas Jefferson, proposed a design competition for the new capitol building in 1792. The building was finally completed in 1826. The neoclassical building was in direct contrast to the more opulent baroque buildings favored by European monarchs. Neoclassicism was seen as a return to purity, a direct reference to ancient Greek architecture and a clear sign of its roots in democracy.

Case Study: Public Building

Sketch based on an engraving of the Altes Museum from Alexander Thiele, 1830

Schinkel’s Altes Museum, Berlin, 1825–30 Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III, a follower of Humboldt’s ideas on universal education, commissioned a public museum for the royal art collection. It was a citizen’s right to have access to art, as part of one’s cultural education. Despite a monarchial form of government, republican ideals were spreading throughout Europe and manifested themselves in public buildings built in the neoclassical style. John Soane’s Bank of England (1788–1833), a neoclassical edifice, was a building that reflected the prestige and responsibility of the nation’s economy. Case Study: Public Building

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Houses of Parliament, London Built 1837– 60

In contrast, buildings not based on classical principles were viewed as conservative and monarchist. Extract from the building permission documents for the New Houses of Parliament in London: Barry and Pugin, Palace of Westminster, London 1837–60 New Houses of Parliament, House of Lords Debate from June 15, 1835:

“Resolved. – That the Committee are of [the] opinion that it is expedient that the designs for the rebuilding of the Houses of Parliament should be left open to general competition. – That the Committee are of [the] opinion that the style of the buildings should be either Gothic or Elizabethan.”7 Gothic architectural style was clearly not seen as democratic or republican in nature, further emphasizing the image of classical architecture as universal and egalitarian.

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Hierarchy of Building Types of the Third Reich: – Cultural and government buildings were to be eternal, timeless, and built in stone. – Banks and businesses were to be clearly more modest.

– Houses were to be unassuming in appearance. – Industrial buildings were to be foremost functional and without any aesthetic or symbolic value.8

House no. 1, Paul Schmitthenner, 1933

Kochenhofsiedlung

Returning to Stuttgart, the opposition to the Weissenhofsiedlung was supported by local architects who were not invited to participate; skilled builders who saw the new construction methods as threatening; and by the political right, who saw the new modernism as non-German in character. In 1927 the attempt to create an alternative, more “German” housing complex was not successful, but by 1933 with the rise of National Socialism, it was possible for the Kochenhofsiedlung to be realized.

Case Study: Public Building

The houses were traditionally built with wood and pitched roofs. The all-telling slogan was: “German Wood for German Building and Housing.” The goal was to help support the wood industry by promoting wooden housing.

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Neue Reichskanzlei, Voßstrasse. Architect: Albert Speer

National Socialism and Classicism

Cultural and government buildings had to be timeless and clear; to convey simplicity and elegance, architecture in the classical style was preferred. It was also a counterpoint to the more fashionable Jugendstil, which was popular with the more prosperous classes and from the National Socialist standpoint, the decadent sector of society. Though not obviously German in origin, classical architecture was argued as appropriate since Dorians were considered to be Aryans, thus making the Doric column racially acceptable for National Socialist

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Germany. Historically, Doric columns were also favored by Prussian architects Behrens and Schinkel, thereby establishing a German precedent and lineage.9 It is no wonder that government buildings were neoclassical. As a style easily understood by other nations as universal and egalitarian, it consciously served another purpose, of masking political intent.

Case Study: Public Building

Plan of the Neues Schloss after Allied bombardment: the areas marked in red were not destroyed.

The physical aftermath of the Second World War in Stuttgart resulted in the destruction of 39,125 buildings by Allied bombings. The decision in 1946 was not to rebuild or reconstruct the old city center. A model city of the twentieth century had to be vehiclefriendly; reconstructing narrow streets and small building lots did not fit into this new program. Stuttgart looked to the future, not to the past.

was saved at the last minute through citizen protest and with a one-vote margin in Parliament. The decision was to rebuild and restore the building. The rebuilding started in 1958 and was completed in 1964.

By 1957, nearly ten years after the war, the city was still dotted with ruins. The Neues Schloss, originally slated to be torn down,

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Postwar unification of two German states: In 1952, a referendum was held for a united Baden and Württemberg. After the war, Allied nations occupied various sectors of Germany. In southwest Germany, French and American Allied forces created borders based on Autobahn

routes, which helped troop movement but ignored traditional historical and cultural barriers. This disregard helped overcome old rivalries and aided in the unification of the area as a single state.

Referendum poster for postwar unification of two German states

A competition was announced for a new Parliament Building in 1953, the first to be built in postwar Europe. A debate arose whether to house the Parliament in the Neues Schloss, originally built in the eighteenth century as a royal residence and destroyed during the war. For practical reasons, the Neues Schloss was rejected; the functional needs of the new government would require substantial changes that would change the historical character 230

of the older building. It was also more desirable to have the new Landtag as a neighboring building to the older Schloss. The symbolic significance of the Landtag within an independent building was of significant importance. There was considerable concern over the juxtaposition of a classical building and a new democracy.

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4 5

1

2

3

6

Peter von Seidlein and Ulrich von Altenstadt’s winning entry: Von Seidlein, a former student of Mies van der Rohe, submitted a design that was clear, logical, transparent, and in the modernist tradition of emphasizing function over stylistic considerations.

6

Upper floor plan with Plenum chamber and MP and staff/support rooms

1 2 3 4 5 6

Upper level foyer Plenum Journalist MP rooms Support staff rooms Courtyard below

Competition for the New Parliament

Postwar regional governments were politically very important. Representation on the local level was taken very seriously and, given the country’s recent past, there was acute sensitivity toward any form of misrepresentation or echoes of the past. The new parliament building was expected to break from historic references; despite its democratic nature, classicism had been misused by the National Socialist leaders and was no longer seen as appropriate. With no surCase Study: Public Building

prise, none of the competition entries was neoclassical. All proposals were streamlined and modernist, referring back to the idealism of the Weissenhofsiedlung and the short period of Weimar democracy. The new republic was to be represented by a modern and more open form of architecture.

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3

2

Site diagram from von Seidlein and von Altenstadt’s competition entry

1

1 Landtag 2 Neues Schloss 3 Opera House

The winning entry from von Seidlein and von Altenstadt was not built due to changes in the program, budget, size, and siting. A complete redesign of the building was required. The architects turned down the offer to rework their scheme, and the new design, based on the winning proposal, was completed by the City’s Buildings Department, led by Horst Linde.

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8

2

7

4 3

1

5 6

1 2 3 4

Landtag Staatstheater Neues Schloss Schlossplatz

5 6 7 8

Altes Schloss Wilhelmspalais Staatsgalerie Schlossgarten

The smaller building is a freestanding square with a 54 meter by 54 meter footprint, with a 9 meter by 9 meter structural grid. It is positioned between historical and culturally important buildings, surrounded in greenery.

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Meeting rooms

Upper foyer Plenum

MP rooms

Upper Level with Plenum

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Despite the reduction in size, the principle elements of the original design were kept intact. There is a generous foyer leading to the Plenum, with MP and support rooms as part of the outer perimeter. The character is distinctly modernist.

Case Study: Public Building

Spatial Hierarchy: Outside to Inside

Private: MPs Only

MP offices, meeting and work rooms

MPs, Press, Public

Plenum, heart of the building

Public

Entry level

20 m

Facade and Structural Grid

9m 54 m

There is a clear spatial hierarchy that is apparent in both plan and section. The Plenum is the heart of the building. In section, the ground floor is raised on a plinth, which creates a semipublic zone. The public is welcomed and with the slightly higher elevation, are made aware that this is a special place. The next level up, where the Plenum is located, is where MPs, the public, and the press are gathered: this is the core of Case Study: Public Building

the building. The uppermost floor is exclusively for the MPs and consists of individual offices as well as meeting and joint working areas.

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View from visitors’ gallery, the interior walls acoustic wood paneling

Within the strict grid, the Plenum was planned for optimized acoustic quality and visual accessibility. Every seat in the 2,600square-meter chamber has the same quality; without optical or sound obstruction, even in the audience balcony.10 One is able to hear without the aid of microphones: there are only good seats in this chamber.

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Sixty kilometers away, the Holzmaden quarries contain slate sheets lodged with Jurassic water creatures and plants from when the area was a primordial lake. Dr. Bernhard Hauff (1866–1950), a wellknown taxidermist, developed a unique method of preserving fossils within the slate sheets.

Interior Materials

Case Study: Public Building

The Plenum has sound-absorbing wooden panels. Acoustic ceiling tiles are used throughout. Gray wall-to-wall, sound-absorbing carpets on the Plenum and upper MP levels keep noise to a minimum. Travertine marble is used on the entry level. In contrast to wood-paneled walls on the upper floors, the ground floor walls are travertine, with Holzmaden slate, natural stone embedded with fossils, used near the main staircase. The slate wall is the building’s solitary decorative element. The staircases are white, fair-faced concrete, as are the columns. Balustrades are bronze framing glazed panels, echoing the exterior facade. 237

Exterior Materials

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The visual contrast between the low-lying, fully transparent new building to the overdimensional classical buildings is a marked break from past imagery. The challenge was to ensure that the building would not be mistaken for a nondescript office building or a department store. To achieve this, importance was placed on the choice of exterior materials, as well as the siting of the building. It is on a slight plinth, to offset it from the surrounding greenery and to place the building on a modest pedestal.

Case Study: Public Building

The cultural buildings that surround the seat of government are reflected in the facade.

The bronze and gray-brown glazing were to blend in with the green lawns and the natural stone facades of the neighboring buildings, the Opera House and Neues Schloss. Rather than use the standard aluminum facade panels of the time, bronze was chosen. The patina of aged bronze would be complementary with the older buildings.

Case Study: Public Building

Another reason for choosing bronze was it held slightly better under mortar attack than aluminum. Oddly, despite the fact that only one-third of each bay was clad in metal, and two-thirds in glass, which would surely shatter under mortar attack,11 it was still considered a reasonable argument for bronze. Clearly the memory of recent battle fire still held a dominant place in decisionmaking. It was also decided to use a curtain wall facade system for the new building, completing the trend away from all forms of traditional building.

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Lever House by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill is often credited to be the first modern glass curtain wall facade; it was completed in 1952.

Curtain Wall Facade System

A non-load-bearing glazed facade system was still relatively new in 1958. The decision to use a curtain wall for the Landtag came with more negative points than positive. With full glazing, it would be too hot in summer and too cold in winter. Without sun protection, the interior would be flooded with blinding sunlight. There would be condensation problems in winter, as well as problems with rain and wind loads. The positive arguments were natural light and

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uninterrupted views for those inside and full transparency for those outside, literally and figuratively. In 1958 it was a state-of-the-art building system, important symbolism for a country reestablishing itself as forwardlooking. The decision to use a curtain wall system was to break from the past. The inherent building problems could be solved to override the negative aspects.

Case Study: Public Building

Seagram Building, New York, 1958 Mies van der Rohe

Detail: Facade

Curtain wall systems were available on the market, but the building committee needed the facade to be energy efficient and cost-effective. As a public building, it was important that the financial commitment of public funds was appropriate and would not become a burden. Due to the use of expensive materials, three options were submitted for tender, and the results of the glazing package steered the final costs of the building. Even the cost differences between aluminum and bronze panels was a consideration; had bronze been distinctly more expensive than aluminum, then aluminum would have been used.

Case Study: Public Building

The curtain wall required I-beams on the facade for additional structural stiffening to protect the building from wind loads and to structurally tie back to interior walls. Unexpectedly, the most economical option was one similar to the facade detail used by Mies van der Rohe’s Seagram building.12 Perhaps this should not have been so surprising, since it is to be expected that Mies’s detail would be well thought through.

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Section through curtain wall facade

1

3

1 Entry level 2 Chambers level 3 Private MP level

1 2 3 4 5

Bronze panel Glazing I-beam stiffener Concrete Plinth

2 1

2

2 1

3 Exterior

Interior

1 5

4

Energy Concerns

Decades before the energy crisis and worries about limited environmental resources, the architects were concerned to make this building as energy efficient as possible. Curtain wall facades have the advantage that there is more usable floor area compared to load-bearing facade buildings. However, since the facade cannot carry structural loads, they do not have operable windows. The problem of air exchange, in- and outtake, must be done mechanically. In order to prevent condensation, there is a need for a constant air flow near the glazing. To avoid uncomfortable breezes, desks should not be placed too close to the windows. 242

The builders were concerned about maintenance costs for an air-conditioning system. It was important to maximize the energy efficiency of the glazing system and to optimize internal mechanical services to reduce operating costs. These considerations helped justify the decision to have a curtain wall facade, which was economically viable for high-rise buildings but not necessarily for a low-lying building. It was a luxury to use this system on the Landtag since the amount of floor space gained was minimal in relation to the costs involved.

Case Study: Public Building

Detail Section: Upper Level, MP Offices

Roof 1 2

Air Duct 3

1 2 3 4 5 6

I-beam to stiffen facade Metal panel Louvers Suspended ceiling Single glazing Air grill

4

Hot air rising, summer

5

Flow fresh air

Cold air winter

6

Carpeted floor

Air duct

Different detail options were sent out to tender and required additional tests for insulation properties. Two important factors were providing adequate solar shading in summer and reducing condensation in winter. External louvers provided the best sun protection but were liable to mechanical problems and susceptible to dirt build-up

Case Study: Public Building

through pollution. Alternatively, indoor louvers were better but only in combination with solar heat-absorbing glass. Research in the United States found that copper-colored glazing had 200 percent higher heat absorption. Additional tests were conducted to decide the effectiveness of double over single glazing. Surprisingly, single glazing was only 10 percent less effective than double. The choice to use single bronze-colored glass with internal louvers was more cost-effective and provided savings in energy costs and future maintenance.13

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Section Detail 1 Floor carpet

1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Exterior glazing Metal facade panel Louvers Lighting grill Interior glazing Structural slab Suspended ceiling

5

Air flow

6

Cavity for Lights

2 3

4

7

1 Exterior

The single glazing solution was not adequate for all rooms, especially those that required acoustic insulation. Sound-sensitive meeting and conference rooms, especially given the level of street and traffic noise, needed a different solution. For these rooms, a second interior glazing 60 centimeters away from the exterior glazing was built. This provided not only a good sound barrier but helped reduce winter condensation and summer solar radiation, reducing air-conditioning use in these larger spaces.

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60 cm

Interior

The details show how important it was for the building to be sustainable, despite the fact that environmental issues were of no concern, and to be technologically up-todate without jeopardizing public funds.

Case Study: Public Building

Democracy at work: The Landtag building represents transparency and clarity.

Conclusion

Case Study: Public Building

At night, when the lights of the MPs’ offices are lit, the transparency of government at work is clearly visible. This understated building with no physical barriers on the ground level, where the green continues from the park to the low plinth on which the building sits, is a constant reminder that government should be accessible, lucid, and thoughtful of the citizens that it represents. The decision to move away from classical edifices was more than a facile reaction to style. It remains a unique building capturing the character of a fledgling republic eager to establish itself notwithstanding its past scars.

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Footnotes

1. Based on 2017 data, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detroit, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Manchester, https://en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/Stuttgart. Accessed September 26, 2018. 2. Richard Pommer and Christian F. Otto, Weissenhof 1927 and the Modern Movement In Architecture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1991, chapter 6.

10. Erwin Heinle, “Landtagsgebäude in Stuttgart,” Bauwelt 38 (1961): 1063–73, here, 1063. 11. Ibid., 1069. 12. Ibid., 1070. 13. Ibid., 1064.

3. Ibid., 130. 4. Ibid., 56–60. 5. Bodo Rasch, “Wie die Weissenhofsiedlung entstand,” Museumderdinge.de. Accessed July 7, 2016, http://www.museumderdinge.de/ institution/historisches-kernthema/ wie-die-weissenhofsiedlung-entstand. 6. “Luftangriffe auf Stuttgart.” Accessed June 2, 2015, http://www.schutzbauten-stuttgart.de/ Portals/0/Luftangriffe%20Stuttgart3.pdf. 7. “New Houses of Parliament.” HL Deb June 15, 1835, vol 28 cols 774–779. Accessed February 23, 2015, https://api.parliament.uk/historichansard/lords/1835/jun/15/new-housesof-parliament, here, 1. 8. Lars Olof Larsson, Die Neugestaltung der Reichshauptstadt. Stuttgart: Verlag Gerd Hatje, 1978, 104–106. 9. Ibid., 108–109 246

Case Study: Public Building

Case Study

Farmhouse Black Forest

Curt Liebich, Laublehof, 1918

The romantic and idyllic image of a typical Black Forest farmhouse, as captured by Curt Liebich (1868–1937), has shaped our idealized image of a wistful past and a nostalgic shadow for a simpler life. The Black Forest is a destination for tourists in search of bucolic authenticity. In contrast, the reality of life in the Middle Ages, when these farmhouses were first built, was harsh. The houses were built out of ingenious necessity rather than for picturesque beauty. These farmhouses also predate our contemporary concept of sustainability.

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Rhine

Germany

France

Vosges Black Forest

Switzerland

The Black Forest is a region found in southwest Germany. The Rhine forms a natural border with the Vosges, in the French sector of the forest to the west; to the south is Switzerland and to the east the Swabian Alb. With deep valleys, the area’s topography creates pockets of isolation. The added factor of extreme seasonal weather conditions, hot summers, cold winters, heavy rain, and snow make it difficult to get from one settlement to the next. The result is 250

that the region does not have a metropolis, nor places where important battles were fought. It remains untouched by historical upheavals. It has always been an area of seclusion, inhabited by a population whose natural state is self-containment and selfreliance.

Case Study: Farmhouse

Forestry is the local industry. A dense growth of pines and firs block out the sun; all that one sees is pitch-dark umbrage, with an occasional ray of light illuminating single tree trunks. The name is appropriate. This naturally forbidding landscape stops the uninitiated from entering, and helps to intensify its isolation and seclusion.

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Logs en route to Holland

The timber industry has existed for centuries. The straight-growing firs were felled to supply the Dutch with wood for their ships as well as pylons for building foundations. Wood was used also to create a form of coal, and provided the necessary raw material for crystal glass production. As can be expected with this abundance of wood, the inhabitants have a high level of carpentry skills, which led to clockmaking. 252

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Clockmaking

Traditional Industry

Crystal glass production

Coal production

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The traditional farmhouses are sightseeing magnets, and date from the early sixteenth century.

two siblings come upon a house made of sweets and are enticed by its wicked owner, who captures Hans with the plan of serving him as the next meal. While the The Great Famine (1315–17) and the Black witch prepares the oven, Gretel shoves Death in this region (1382 and again in her in and saves Hans. They discover the 1384) left their marks and dramatically witch’s secret treasure trove and return reduced the local population. Perhaps the home with enough riches to feed thembest illustration of the dire situation after selves and their parents. There is no docuthese natural disasters is Grimms’ fairy tale mentation of cannibalism in the forest of Hansel and Gretel. The original story during the Great Famine but it is not hard stems from this period. To save themselves to imagine that the sheer remoteness of from starvation, Hansel and Gretel’s parents the farms led village dwellers to make abandon their children in the forest. The wild speculations, especially believing that farmers had vast wealth through forestry, the myth perpetuated by the reality of extreme isolation.1 254

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Rhine

Map of nine different farmhouse types as recorded from the Landesdenkmalamt of Baden-Württemberg Monasteries, which were important medieval centers, are red dots. Blue lines are important waterways leading into valleys.

Kinzigtäler Type

Elztäler Type

Dreisamtäler Type

Gutachtäler Type

Hotzen Type

Münstertäler Type Wiesentäler Type

Albtäler Type

Höhenhaus Type

In the mid-1500s, after a series of natural disasters that further decimated the population, the large single-roofed structure became a building type. The population was reduced in areas by a third or in the worst case by half. Land plots were owned by several monasteries and tenured to foresters. Decreased population led to abandoned farms, forcing monasteries to redistribute and create larger parcels, consolidating two to four and sometimes five

Case Study: Farmhouse

farms into one.2 The building type that we recognize today as a typical Black Forest farmhouse stems from this consolidation. The Landesdenkmalamt (State Building Preservation Department), in the 1980s, recorded nine different farm building types based on the valleys they are located in. There are regional differences to these types; however, they are uniformly based on a single structure under a single large roof.

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A Peasant's house, Black Forest, Baden, Germany, photograph dated between 1890 and 1900

The layout and function of the farmhouse is deeply entwined with its isolation and the harsh living environment, which consequently determines how it is built. The house is sited often near a running stream, which is diverted into parts of the house for fresh water, and to keep milk and other produce fresh. It is situated on a hillside, with entry from above and below. Multiple entries provide separate access for animals and vehicles. 256

Case Study: Farmhouse

Using stream water to keep milk and butter fresh

In more temperate valleys, stream water is collected in a trough, with a little milk house to keep food fresh and to provide fresh water. In houses built at higher altitudes with harsher conditions, the milk house and trough are built inside, as was the case in the Hotzenwaldhaus.

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Shed

Living

Stall Road side

A longitudinal section shows how the house is organized. A single roof with a steep slope that extends beyond the house boundary, provides natural sun shading in summer and still allows light into the house during colder months from the lower winter sun. The advantage of the steep-sloped roof is it prevents snow build-up in winter.

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Taking advantage of the natural terrain, one end of the house is embedded into the hillside. A high road leads to an entry under the roof, allowing the farmer to drive his wagon into the roof shed. By the road side there is easy access for farm animals to their stalls.

Case Study: Farmhouse

Vehicle entry Shed

Living

Stall

A single large hipped roof plays an important role in the building’s construction and use. The column-free space under the roof is large enough to keep farming wagons, machinery, and large-scale tools. Skilled carpentry and a tried-and-tested structural system brings stability to the roof as is evident by its ability to take on unilateral wind and snow loads.

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Insulation through air mass Warm living quarters Insulation through mass and animal heat

Farmhouse Insulation

The house is divided into three levels; the ground floor houses stables, the middle is living quarters, and under the roof, there is a large shed. During the winter, the living quarters are insulated by the shed above and from the stables below where the warmth of sleeping animals radiates to the upper floors. In summer, the grazing animals are outside, allowing the coolness of the stables to keep the house temperate. At night when the air cools, the animals back in their stables warm the house.

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Note the ceiling height of the living area; it is much lower, for greater heat conservation. The three-level “sandwich” farmhouse type is found in valleys.

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Hotzenwaldhaus

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For farms built above a certain altitude or higher up the mountain, the three-tier solution was not adequate. The harsher climate and greater exposure to wind required a change in layout. Living quarters are not just protected from above but on all sides. The lower-level stalls are forgone; the layout is a single level with a stable for the farm animals and farmer’s living quarters. The stalls are placed on the side of the building most exposed to the wind. The exterior wall is made of stone with interior walls constructed out of wood. The water trough and milk house are located inside the house. The “house in a house” construction provides additional insulation. Case Study: Farmhouse

Hillside with loft entry above

Water source Kitchen Fire source

Stall Loft above

Living area Bedrooms above

Interior corridor

Entry

Thatched roof line above

Ground floor plan of Hotzenwaldhaus

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Hillside

Kitchen

Stall

Cold winds Living area

Corridor to provide additional insulation

Insulation is provided from above and on all sides. Even the animals in the stall need to be protected from the climate and are provided with a buffer corridor to add an extra layer of insulation. Above the kitchen are the bedrooms, taking advantage of the warmth from the kitchen fire.

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The insulation corridor: In the summer the hall windows can be taken out to let more light in.

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Machines

People

Animals

Roof overhang as sun shading and weather protection

Roof Structure

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The basic structural framework is a column-free, open space under the roof. An extension of the thatched roof provides sun shading.

Case Study: Farmhouse

Liegender Stuhl Loft

Floors below

Red arrows show the direction of forces.

The Liegender Stuhl (Lying Chair) Roof Structure

Case Study: Farmhouse

The liegender Stuhl truss construction gives structural support without the need for columns, leaving the loft space open and unhindered. This flexibility allows the farmer to keep his wagons protected as well the possibility for additional storage space such as hay for his livestock.

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Approach to upper-level shed, Hotzenwaldhaus: The cold winds in the area require a thick thatched roof insulation, as well as an opening on the most protected side.

Building Materials Chosen as a Response The lower floor and foundation are made to Environmental Conditions with stone. This keeps the building cool in summer and warm in winter through natural solar radiation absorption and release. The main structure is made of wood, which is able to expand and contract with changes of humidity without compromising structural strength.

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Stale air

Fresh air exchange

Stale air

The thatched roof is waterproof, and has very good insulating properties. In summer, there is natural ventilation with hot air below flowing through the building and out through the thatched roof.

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Release of smoke

Direction of heat from the open fire; note the lower ceiling, to keep warmth in.

Fireplace Serves a Multipurpose Function

270

There is normally no chimney; a stone fireplace is used in the kitchen area and a flue, made into a series of ducts, allows smoke to waft throughout the building. This reduces the dampness and condensation from the animals below and preserves the wooden structure. The smoke is also channeled to a special area above the fire to cure ham as a method of preservation for foodstuff needed for the long winters. The thatch roof requires no special ventilation, and the smoke naturally flows out.

Case Study: Farmhouse

The kitchen is an open fireplace, with a Gwölm, a hood made of plaited branches and covered in clay to catch smoke and sparks. The heat from the fireplace keeps bedrooms warm and preserves the ham hanging from the rafters.

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A tried-and-tested design, the principles of farmhouse design have remained unchanged for hundreds of years. Modernization with indoor plumbing, centralized heating, and electrical wiring has made the farmhouse obsolete. The disadvantage of these buildings are the low ceilings in the living quarters and dark rooms due to small windows. The necessity to prevent heat loss kept ceiling heights low; and expensive glass, with its bad insulating qualities, was

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used sparingly. Small rooms were shared by family members as well as farmhands, to conserve and share heat, but this allowed little privacy. Farm animals not only shared their warmth but the smell of the stable. The stench of the stalls mingled with smoke was a common odor of the farmhouses. Notwithstanding this, the principles of the Black Forest farmhouse are a sterling example of sustainability, where every detail is considered with regard to the whole.

Case Study: Farmhouse

Footnotes

1. “Hansel and Gretel,” Wikipedia. Accessed November 14, 2016, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Hansel_and_Gretel, 3. 2. Ulrich Schnitzer and Franz Meckes, Schwarzwaldhäuser von gestern für die Landwirtschaft von morgen. Stuttgart: Theiss, 1989, 14.

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Case Study

Halls A Short Evolution

Oxford English Dictionary: hall, noun 1. A large place covered by a roof; in early times applied to any spacious roofed place, without or with subordinate chambers attached; a temple, palace, court, royal residence. Obs. in gen. sense. 2. The large public room in a mansion, palace, etc., used for receptions, banquets, etc., which untill nearly 1600 greatly surpassed in size and importance the private rooms, or bowers […]; a large or stately room in a house. in hall, was often rhetorically contrasted with in the field. servants’ hall: the common room in a mansion or large house in which the servants dine.

Why Halls?

Case Study: Halls

3. The residence of a territorial proprietor, a baronial or squire’s “hall.” 4. A term applied, esp. in the English universities, to a building or buildings set apart for the residence or instruction of students, and, by transference, to the body of students occupying it. 5. In English colleges, etc.: The large room in which the members and students dine in common. 6. A house or building belonging to a guild or fraternity of merchants or tradesmen. 7. A large room or building for the transaction of public business…1

The OED definition gives a range of how the word “hall“ is defined. The architectural type is a large, open, mainly column-free space with a long-spanned structural element that holds up the roof. It is a remarkably flexible building type and can be found in every aspect of life. A hall provides a meeting space for private and public use; it is a communal space. It is a space untethered by weather; outdoor activities can take place indoors or large gatherings can take place regardless of season. It is a quintessential flexible building type.

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Medieval covered market hall, 1434, Cremieu, France Cremieu was an important cross point on the trade routes between France, Savoy, Switzerland, and Italy during the Middle Ages.

Halls have a large footprint; in a map of a city, they are the biggest buildings. In the Middle Ages, it would either be the most important building in a village, next to the church, a castle, or later the town hall. It is a building used by the community, a place of gathering.

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Galleria Vittorio Emmanuele II, Milan Built 1865–67 With two glazed, vaulted arcades joined by an octagon-shaped dome, adjacent to the cathedral and the piazza in front,

the galleria serves to protect strollers from crime and weather, and is a semipublic space in which to be seen, to purchase goods from exclusive shops, and to meet others.

With time, as communal needs diversify and increase, large spanned roofs would house a multitude of activities. From community gathering spaces to commercial arcades, factories, cultural and sports centers, or transportation sheds, large covered spaces are a dominant part of modern life. The scale of these large open buildings help to defy nature. It is possible to swim regardless of season or weather, to ski in Case Study: Halls

Berlin Main Station Opened 2006 A multilevel train station services national and regional trains, the suburban railway, and Berlin’s metro. With fourteen tracks on several different

levels connected by escalators in an open atrium ringed with shops, it is a hybrid train tower and shopping mall under a single roof.

flatlands, to be a flaneur in bad weather, to house machines large enough to produce even larger machines; there is an endless array of possibilities.

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All that remains are four commemorative plaques that mark each corner of the site.

A need for protected communal gathering led to halls. Since the Industrial Revolution, there is an ubiquitous presence of multifunctional sheds. Industrialization helped make halls a popular building type: faster construction time and new materials reduced building costs, while new needs required large, covered spaces. The threshold project was the Great Exhibition of 1851. It was unprecedented in size, speed of construction, innovative use of materials, and ingenious planning and design. 278

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Milestones

A modular system is made up of multifunctional, prefabricated pieces that are easy to assemble. Preparation of the building site happened simultaneously with the manufacturing of building elements off-site, saving construction time. Building units arrived on-site and were immediately assembled. The units were structurally self-supporting, both light and strong, eliminating the need for scaffolding. Services infrastructure such as water drainage, lighting, and ventilation Case Study: Halls

Originally planned as flatroofed, Joseph Paxton incorporated three existing elm trees into the design to facilitate the political decision to go ahead with his proposal. The modular

system allowed him to make the changes, which the contractor was obliged to pay for, without loss of time and costs.

were integrated into the structure, thus eliminating additional site works, another cost- and time-saving measure. The modular grid and easy construction system allowed for spatial flexibility and sudden changes could quickly be incorporated, as when several trees that were slated to be felled had instead to be preserved due to public protest. The building was altered with an arcade to accommodate the trees. 279

In the 1890s the unskilled manual labor of Russian peasants dominated an on-site workforce.

Mid-nineteenth-century England was a hotbed of industry. An industrial infrastructure was already in place, and this made it possible for a project like the Crystal Palace to be realized. In contrast, the All-Russia Industry and Art Exhibition of 1896 in Nizhny Novgorod was planned within the remarkable context of Russia’s industrial backwater. Unlike England, the makeup of the Russian population was illiterate and agricultural. The push for modernization and industrialization in this climate had to take into account a large unskilled labor force.

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The exhibition in Nizhny Novgorod was a platform to highlight Russia’s industry. It was the largest to date and was financially sponsored by Tsar Nicholas II to demonstrate Russia as an industrial nation equal to those in Western Europe. To house the exhibition, Vladimir Shukhov was given the task to build eight halls as well as a hyperboloid galvanized steel tower shell, which was the first of its kind. The exhibition was successful and received international press coverage and attention.

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350 m

Shukhov Tower Planned in 1919 but built between 1920 and 1922, the tower was originally planned to be 350 m tall but was reduced to 150 m because there was not enough steel available in Russia.2

Vladimir Shukhov (1853–1939)

Shukhov was educated at the Tsar’s Moscow Technical School. He is credited with creating the first oil pipeline in Russia, developing a tanker, engineering Moscow’s water supply system, 417 railway bridges, sea mining projects, platforms for heavy artillery, and caissons for sea docks.3 The sheer number of bridges required a standardized method of construction, as well as a reduction of material use, since iron was a limited resource in Russia.4 The efficiency of material use not only made the construction lighter in weight but it also lowered the price of construction.

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The hipped roof pavilion

Shukhov’s patented rhomboid mesh was used to create the exhibition halls. The lattice shell structures revolutionized largespan structural systems; the roofs were built with a minimal amount of materials. There were four basic forms: – hanging structure over a rectangular plan – hanging structure over a circular plan – grid shell over a circular plan – double curved surface

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Using strip and angle steel of equal lengths, it was possible to create different forms of varying structural systems, all from one “construction kit” The advantages were: – weight reduction; using less material was cost-effective – great strength and able to withstand concentrated loads – simple production and construction, since all elements were the same.

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All connections are either riveted or screwed together. The strip steel was cut on-site using a template. The process was made as uncomplicated and repetitive as possible. This was due to the quality of the workers; the method of construction did not require specialized skill.5 The roof covering was galvanized steel plates attached directly to the lattice structure.

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Rotunda: Exhibition for Locomotives and Train-Related Materials

The building was 15 meters tall with a ground diameter of 68.3 meters and a crown diameter of 25 meters. Sixteen inner columns supported the crown circular band, and it was constructed from 640 strip steel pieces. In the center, there was a train turntable with eighteen tracks; two tracks connected trains to the next pavilion.6 The same materials and construction methods were used in the neighboring pavilion, which had a hipped roof rather than a hanging roof structure. Case Study: Halls

The Erector set, or Lego block, principle of creating forms from a limited set of elements makes it easy to deconstruct and rebuild structures. After the exhibition, the Rotunda was dismantled and moved to Yessentuki where it remained until 1980, when it was demolished.

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Geodesic Dome, 1922

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Taking Shukhov’s innovative structural and construction principles a step further, a geodesic dome is lighter and faster to build. Walther Bauersfeld built the first dome on top of the Zeiss factory. He used the geometry of an icosahedron, which is structurally self-supporting and lightweight. This was important since the factory roof could only take a limited additional load. The twenty faces of the icosahedron were subdivided into smaller triangles constructed with 3,480 identical thin iron rods. A wooden global formwork was constructed inside the framework where ferro concrete was thinly sprayed to make a watertight shell, with the proportional thickness of an eggshell relative to its diameter.7 Case Study: Halls

Regardless of size, it remains the same.

A spherical form made from triangular elements is a structurally rigid form where individual rods are in compression. Most materials are stronger in compression than tension. Unknown factors, such as loads from wind, rain, or snow, influence how strong a structure needs to be. Despite its lightweight nature, a geodesic dome is able to withstand load changes, making it structurally efficient. The spherical form perfectly suited Bauersfeld’s planetarium. A single rod length with a fixing component comprised the complete building element necessary for the structural frame. This was cost-effective, Case Study: Halls

lightweight, fast to construct, and used less material than conventional building materials. A geodesic dome is attractive for hobby builders as a garden pavilion or as a house, since it is easy, reliable, structurally sound, and fast to build. The disadvantage is the form: interiors must conform to the exterior shape, making it difficult to construct rooms. The ratio of height to area results in limited usable interior space, making enclosed rooms impractical.

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Multihalle

Herzogenriedpark Urban Revitalization Area

Luisenpark Baroque Center

Mannheim

Bundesgartenschau (National Garden Show), Germany

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In 1951 a biennial National Garden Show was created to help create urban parks in German cities, which were still riddled with postwar ruins. The focus was on areas in need of urban renewal. In 1970 Mannheim was chosen to host the 1975 exhibition. As an industrial city, it had been heavily bombed during the war, and there were still large areas in need of reconstruction. A competition was announced for proposals. The design that won consisted of two parks: Luisenpark, on the south bank of the river Neckar; and Herzogenriedpark, to the north. The long-term aim was to connect the two parks with urban revitalization projects, expanding the city from its Baroque center. Case Study: Halls

Mannheim Mulithalle

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The Multihalle in the Herzogenriedpark was the crowning point of the exhibition. The building has two parts; in the first was a restaurant, and in the second a multifunctional space for events: concerts, television broadcasting, special exhibitions, etc. The two spaces are connected by an elevated walkway. The complete area was covered by a freeform grid shell structure, echoing the hilly landscape and creating an urban bridge between park and city.

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Length at longest point 85 m

Span at longest point 60 m

Height at highest point 20 m

Grid Shell Form

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The study model to determine the form was made at a scale of 1: 98.5. Due to its small scale the net was calculated at every third joint. Each element was 15 millimeters, and the node was 2.5 millimeters. Once the form was set, it was then photographed from different vantage points by stereophotogrammetry, which helped approximate threedimensional coordinate points of each node. This was done by repositioning the points through the laws of central perspective. The coordinates were input into a computer model, then checked and adjusted to make sure all structural forces were in equilibrium.8

At each stage the models were created in a variety of scales. Structural engineers had a 1:60 model built to test wind load. Details were developed for the joints with 1:5 scale models and even in 1:1 scale models. To help understand the structure and construction, the tensile roof skin contractor had a model that took up 80 square meters in their works. The model was used to test the membrane and to help to instruct the construction team.9

The choice of a grid shell over a geodesic structure was the latter’s formal rigidity. A grid shell in contrast is more flexible. Principally similar in construction, both are based on equal-length elements held together by a joint or a node. The difference is that the end form is not a predetermined geometric form. Essentially a grid shell is a net: it is structurally efficient, thin, and strong. The Multihalle is 85 meters long; at its highest point, 20 meters; with its longest span 60 meters. It has a roof area of 7,400 square meters with a thickness of 20 centimeters. Similar to the Zeiss geodesic dome the ratio of thickness to diameter is less than an eggshell, making it extremely economical to build.10 Case Study: Halls

Form Finding

Unlike the sphere of a geodesic dome, the initial form for the Multihalle had to be found. This process consists of a net with weights hung upon it, to create an upside down version of the roof. The hanging chain modeling system shows the forces on the structure in tension – but once flipped, the forces would change to compression. This was the only way to design the form and see the structural system. Technological limitations, especially of computerized form imaging, meant a reliance on model work was necessary to be certain that the roof would be structurally viable.

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Materials

Steel or wood are the usual choice of material for lattice grid shells. The decision to use wood was for aesthetic reasons as well as for material properties. Wood is more flexible and elastic than steel, which needs a greater force to bend it. Hemlock trees can reach heights of 60 meters, so long lengths of material were available. A PVC membrane was used to cover the roof, and steel bracing cables were used at every sixth joint for diagonal stiffness to prevent disturbing load failure. The wood mesh structure was tied down to concrete blocks at the boundary of the grid. Openings were made of laminated timber beams to help transfer structural loads. 292

There are two types of loads for grid shell structures: Funicular: The load of its own weight and for uniform loading, including snow or wind.

Wooden laths with a 50×50 mm cross section were used to make the structure lighter; however, concerns as to whether it would be stiff enough resulted in a double-grid structure.

Disturbing: An asymmetrical load, where a large deflection can suddenly cause failure.

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Shear blocks Lathe Cable

Construction

The extensive planning and design phase paid off during construction. The Multihalle was cheaper and quicker to build than conventional structures. Construction was completed within a year. An on-site crane was considered too expensive; instead, the mesh structure was pushed up from below and inward from the sides. The joints had to allow for movement, because the grid would lie flat and then be raised, causing movement at the connections. Once the correct form was established and positioned, the joints were tightened. Additional wooden shear blocks were placed to prevent changes and laths inserted to prevent slipping. There were 33,000 joints, Case Study: Halls

and at each fourth point, laths would meet. Shear blocks helped to prevent bending from wind and snow loads. The allocated budget was 6 million deutsche marks, a modest budget for a building of this size. It was designed for a lifespan of two years but was not dismantled. In 1998 it became a listed building, and it remains the world’s largest wooden grid shell roof in the world. Similar to the Crystal Palace, the wooden structure has begun to corrode, since it was never planned as a permanent structure.

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Poland

Czech Republic

Strip Mine

Germany

Zittau

Exhibition Hall, Zittau, 1993

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Twenty years after the Mannheimer Multihalle, Germany’s newly reunified states had to raise building and infrastructure standards to match those of the more modern and industrialized West. Zittau, a city located at the crossroads of Germany, Poland, and the Czech Republic, was known for its natural beauty – and for its strip mines. It was chosen as a location for a new exhibition hall focusing on environmentally friendly building.

Case Study: Halls

Strip Mining and Lignite Coal

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The use of easily available lignite, or brown, coal as an energy source increased the amount of CO2 in the Zittau area. Coal-fired power stations use cooling towers that produce fogs similar to the famous nineteenthcentury London pea-soupers. The burning of lignite has high CO2 emissions, up to seven times higher than gas. The health hazards from air pollution contribute to the risk of lung cancer, chronic bronchitis, and heart disease leading to premature death, according to Greenpeace’s Energy desk.

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CO2 Reduction as a Building Program

The exhibition hall was part of the post-Wall era to modernize the new eastern states of Germany, with an aim to demonstrate how ecological design can be a harbinger for a better future. To create environmental awareness among the area’s inhabitants, the building was to host semipermanent exhibitions for DIY homebuilders. The goal was to disseminate information regarding eco-friendly building 296

products and to inform builders on new guidelines. The building was planned to be CO2-neutral. This was achieved through a generous area of greenery, with plants especially chosen for their high rate of CO2-to-oxygen transfer and ability to absorb solar heat gain. Additional cooling and heating would be provided by a rapeseed oil thermal power station. Case Study: Halls

Form Follows Sun

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As a further development of a grid shell structure, the Zittau hall takes into consideration environmental issues. The Zittau grid shell takes advantage of the sun’s movement. The southern side of the building is wider to maximize solar gain and narrower in the north to diminish thermal loss. Air-filled pillows were integrated to the grid structure as a building skin providing insulation and translucent filtered light. Solar heat fills the double-skin pillows that are sandwiched to the lattice structure.

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1400

1000

5000

5000

5000

5000

Option 1 Laminated timber

Option 2 Timber Trusses

Structural height 1000 mm. Elements need to be spatially twisted. Creates shadows due to solid construction and relative height. Weight: approx. 100 kg/m2

Structural height 1400 mm. Connection joints can only be made from steel. Needs a complex cast steel joint in order to accommodate various changes in angles. Weight: approx. 75 kg/m2

Detail Studies for Structural Rods

To determine which material would make up the structural net, important factors to be considered were weight and structural height. Greater depth would cast shadows, minimizing sunlight needed for plants; if the roof is too heavy, it would need greater anchoring at stress points. The search for a thin, strong material led to using experimental carbon fiber rods.

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508

5000

5000

Option 3 Steel Rods Diameter of 508 mm. Weight: approx. 60–80 kg/m2

Computerized diagram to show structural stress points

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Phase 2

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The model shows the expansion of the project to include two towers. They were to accommodate visitors either as a hotel or flats for visitors planning to stay for longer periods. Included in the program for the towers were classrooms for lectures, an education center, and additional meeting rooms. The project was unfortunately stopped during planning permission. However, the plans show energy concerns as a fundamentally important factor in the decision-making process during the design phase. A new direction for hall design was the need to integrate energy-saving issues into the structural system.

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Diagram section of AAMI stadium, Melbourne, Australia

Bio-Frame Protection from weather

Uninterrupted view

Bioframe: Integration of Services and Structure

The AAMI stadium roof for a rugby and football pitch is composed of a structural derivation of a geodesic dome. The triangular panels incorporated energy-saving elements within the geodesic framework. The aim of the roof was to provide maximum weather protection and unobstructed views for the expected 30,050 fans the stadium could accommodate. To this end, no structural supports were allowed in the seating areas. A cantilevered roof, a standard stadium roof solution, was rejected in favor of a bio-frame, which uses 50 percent less steel.11 The bio-frame derives its strength from steel and its geometric form, which is based on a geodesic dome. Case Study: Halls

The triangular faces are composed of glass, aluminum metal panels, or louvers, which are held in place by 4,156 steel rod tubes that form the shells that make up the roof structure. To give an idea of the scale of the building, the steel tubes have a diameter of 273 millimeters,12 a departure from Bauerfeld’s thin rods. The shells were contracted off-site, simultaneously allowing construction of the concrete base on-site.

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Triangularbased geodesic structure

Connecting secondary face

Triangularbased geodesic structure

Connecting secondary face

Triangularbased geodesic structure

Uniformity allowed shell forms to be manufactured by three contractors, to speed up the construction time. Models were created to test the roof structure, and unlike the Multihalle, 3-D computerized virtual models were created to help determine the most efficient geometric forms. This resulted in a composite structural system, with properties that use a cantilever (a traditional stadium roof structure), catenary (a hanging structure of a curve), shell (a self-supporting uniform structure), and an arch.

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Hollow-core concrete slabs, which are 40 percent void, were used instead of solid slabs; as a consequence they weigh less and use less material. The slab provides a savings in heating and cooling, since the slab is able to store solar heat in the winter or provide nighttime cooling in the summer.13

Case Study: Halls

The concern over limited resources and buildings as known high-energy consumers were factors taken into account in the design process of the AAMI Park. In addition to reducing the steel used, rainwater is collected and reused; LED floodlights, which use only 10 percent of the energy needed for conventional lights, were used; and passive service systems as opposed to mechanical services were favored. The emphasis on using recycled building materials, such as timber, and providing access to the stadium via public transportation and bicycling parking areas were all considerations included in the final project.

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WW I 1914–18 1917 Russian Revolution

Exhibition halls are structures that are quickly and ingeniously constructed and disassembled. Budget and time constraints influence design, construction, and choice of material. Temporary structures can be flagships for an event and call out for innovation, as was the case in the Crystal Palace or the All-Russia Industry and Art Exhibition of 1986, both of which relied on new methods to achieve the demands of the brief. 304

WW II 1939– 45

1992 UNFCC United Nations Framework Conference on Climate Change

AAMI: Hybrid structure with geodesic elements; renewable energy as a factor

1760 cast iron production begins

Zittau Exhibiton Hall: Form based on solar movement; CO2 reduction as a factor

1800 common use of steam power

Multihalle Mannheim: Free-form shell grid

1896

Zeiss Planetarium: Geodesic dome structure

Nizhny Novgorod: Grid net structure

Crystal Palace: Prefabricated building elements 1851

1975

1922

1993

2010

2005 Kyoto Protocol in effect

From using prefabricated building elements to cost-effective construction methods, innovative structural systems, and energyconscious design, these concerns display a shift and inclusion of new issues that influence the construction industry and how buildings are designed. These are issues that are important to all buildings, not exclusive to halls.

Case Study: Halls

Footnotes

1. “Hall,” Oxford English Dictionaries. Accessed November 14, 2016, http://en.oxforddictionaries.com/ definition/hall.

10. “Mannheim Multihalle – Strained Grid,” Evolution of German Shells: Efficiency In Form. Accessed November 20, 2014, http://shells.princeton.edu/Mann1.html.

2. David Engler, “Die sparsame Konstruktion,” tec21 41 (2004): 13. 3. Ibid., 11.

11. “AAMI Park,” Australian Steel Institute. Accessed July 25, 2015, steel.org.au/ media/File/1_AAMI_Park_Case_ Study.pdf.

4. Ibid.

12. Ibid., 2.

5. Rainer Graefe, “Netzdächer, Hängedächer und Gitterschalen,” V.G. Suchov 1853 –1939: Kunst der Konstruktion. Stuttgart: Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen, 1990, 35.

13. Ibid.

6. Ibid. 7. Joachim Krausse, “Architektur aus dem Geist der Projektion: Das ZeissPlanetarium.” In Wissen in Bewegung: 80 Jahre Zeiss-Planetarium Jena, edited by Ernst-Abbe-Stiftung, 51–84. Jena: Ernst-Abbe Stiftung, 2006. 8. “Frei Otto: Multihalle Mannheim,” Deutsches Architekturmuseum Modellsammlung. Accessed September 2, 2015, http://archiv.dam-online.de/ handle/11153/187-011-001. 9. Ibid., 2.

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Case Study

Bridge Salginatobel

Ponte Vecchio, Florence

Inca Bridge

Roman Pontoon Bridge, Column of Marcus Aurelius, Rome

A bridge connects two points. How this is achieved and why it is necessary are the underlying factors for bridge building. Romans created pontoon bridges for military purposes, temporary structures that are easily transported during their marches, and can quickly be assembled and taken apart.

Case Study: Bridge

Peruvians made twined rope bridges to cross deep valleys to reach other villages. They used local materials with the available manpower and technology. Renaissance Florentine rulers extended their buildings onto bridges, to protect themselves from the elements but more importantly to keep their movements secret, in keeping with their treacherous intrigues. 307

There is more than one way to connect two points, depending on who or what is crossing. A wagon or cart would have difficulty with a rope bridge, as would a marching army. Once the Romans have crossed, the pontoon bridge is dismantled and leaves with the army; this would be tiresome for a Peruvian. Who needs the bridge and why influences which available materials are used as well as the structure of the bridge.

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The strength of a structure is determined by the loads that have an impact on it. If a bridge must withstand heavy trucks or pedestrians or cyclists, the loads will change. How is it anchored? How appropriate is the material? Can the bridge be made with the given technology and manufactured within reason? Is the bridge subjected to heavy winds, rain, or snow? How does the local climate affect the structural strength? The answers to these questions help frame the structural framework of the bridge.

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Who or what is crossing?

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Kintai Bridge, Iwakuni, Yamaguchi Prefecture, Japan, opened 1673

The vagaries of nature have an impact on bridge forms. A Peruvian rope bridge can only withstand the elements for a year before it deteriorates. It is rebuilt every year. The Kintai Bridge (1673), with wood piers and a series of wooden arches, was built to be flood-proof, to withstand annual typhoons. A year later, a flood destroyed the bridge. Stone replaced the wooden piers; of the three wooden arches, the two end arches were replaced every forty years, and the middle arch, every twenty years. Despite this, nearly 300 years later, a flood destroyed the bridge, and it was then reconstructed with nails for additional strength. 310

Case Study: Bridge

Fritz Leonhardt’s Ten Rules to Better Bridges (Aesthetics), an engineer’s version of Vitruvius’s Ten Books of Architecture:

Engineer or Architect? Who is Responsible for a Bridge?

1 Fulfillment of purpose/function 2 Proportion 3 Order 4 Refinement of form 5 Integration into the environment 6 Surface texture 7 Color 8 Character 9 Complexity 10 Incorporating nature

Professor David Billington wrote, “... [structural engineers] shaped the forms to control the forces, whereas architects in general shaped the forms to control spaces.“1 A good bridge design requires a balance between material choice, cost, detailing, structural grid or system, and function, just like a building. The placement of a bridge in the landscape and how it connects at both ends are important spatial and functional considerations. It is similar to how a building sits on its site and responds to the neighboring building or landscape. A bridge, despite its simplicity of function, is a complex entity that requires both structural and spatial integrity.

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Fritz Leonhardt’s analysis: Leonhardt found the Ahrtal Viaduct unfavorable because the piers have an unpleasant color and do not taper. In contrast,

the Elz Viaduct is praised for its tapered octagonal columns, which harmonize with the Eifel mountain landscape.2

Leonhardt’s analysis, despite its comprehensive coverage of all different types of bridges, mainly focuses on bridges used for automotive traffic: large infrastructure projects that link Autobahn routes over valleys, forests, and cities. The scale of these bridges are overwhelming. There is a clear need to have bridges that are not based on purely efficient logistical considerations but respond to individual places. Leonhardt 312

attempts to clarify this need in his list of ten rules. Unlike a child’s set of wooden blocks, a bridge is not made from a single building kit.

Case Study: Bridge

How does the bridge connect to the existing road?

Does the bridge act as an extension or is it a separate entity?

Where does the bridge end?

Where does the bridge begin?

Site Considerations

In addition to Leonhardt’s list are architectural issues of how the bridge connects to the site, roads, landscape, and whether the bridge melts into the landscape or becomes an object in the landscape. These points are in tandem with a bridge’s structural integrity, use of material, cost-effectiveness and detailing.

Case Study: Bridge

The example of Maillart’s bridge in the Salginatobel Valley within the context of how various factors influenced the bridge design as well as the decision to build a bridge are easier to understand since it is not part of a larger infrastructure project. Its design scope is within grasp, unlike the much larger-scale highway bridges or rail bridges whose parameters include greater regional or even national mobile connection schemes. 313

Swiss Traffic before the 1930s

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The main form of transportation before the Second World War was walking,3 especially in areas outside the major cities. In Switzerland, mass use of motorized transportation occurred after the Second World War. Hand-pushed carts, horse and buggy, and bicycles were normal alternatives. For example, in village communities under the local authority of Lucerne in 1925, pedestrian travel was still the norm.4

Case Study: Bridge

Axenstrasse, completed in 1865, is a 11.4kilometer-long road, cut through mountain ways along the eastern side of Lake Lucerne. Photographs of the road in the 1920s show clearly that an automobile takes up nearly the whole width of the road, while cyclists, pedestrians – some in bare feet – hand-pushed carts; buggies were the more common users. The unpaved road would leave walkers covered in a cloud of dust whenever an automobile passed. Note the dusty shoes in the photographs – even without cars, the users were covered in dust.

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Schuders, founded in 1256, is part of the largest shale slide areas in the Alps, making it susceptible to landslides. A village chapel was first built in 1508 to serve an agricultural and mining community.

After the First World War, there was a concerted effort to provide more access to connect isolated alpine villages for motorized, pedestrian, and bicycle traffic, but more importantly, to keep small villages from dying out due to their isolation. The Salginatobel bridge that connects Schuders to Schiers was built for this reason; Schuders was cut off from the rest of the world during the winter months. It was no longer viable for a village to be so isolated. A bridge competition was organized, with the winning entry based purely on tender price.

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Schuders 1,272 meters above sea level

Schiers 660 meters above sea level

Geographic Location

Case Study: Bridge

Schuders is located in Canton Graubunden, is now part of the local authority of Schiers. There is a 3 percent gradient from Schiers to Schuders. The geology of Schuders is part of the largest landslips in Switzerland. The site of the bridge is in a valley, whose geological makeup is of loose and flaky sandstone that is not strong enough for deep arch foundations,5 a consideration that kept the community from building a bridge much earlier.

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There is constant movement of landmass, as it is part of largest shale slide areas in the Alps. There is always a danger of landslides with paths buried or buildings disappearing. It was unthinkable to build a standard bridge with this difficult terrain. To calculate movement, load changes, and the subsequent costs were prohibitive. The terrain called out for a creative and innovative solution. 318

Case Study: Bridge

Maillart’s Background

Robert Maillart, whose bridge bid came in the lowest and was awarded the contract, was educated at the ETH Zürich. Unlike most engineers educated at the time, Maillart, who studied under Professor Karl Wilhelm Ritter, produced drawings and models rather than static calculations through algebraic analysis. This Swiss method was more pragmatic than its German counterpart, which required mathematical load tests. The main difference was geometric

Case Study: Bridge

Maillart’s structural calculation for the Salginatobel bridge. In total, seven drawings were produced for the bridge.7

diagrams backed by structural analysis rather than algebraic calculations. Full load tests on-site were used to determine performance. This was innovative at the time. Ritter’s methods also included the impact of how a large structure such as bridge would have on its site. Rather than a mathematical abstract with ornamentation provided by an architect, Ritter’s methods made way for a more intuitive and pragmatic solution.6 This made the engineer’s working process much closer to an architect’s. 319

Zuoz Bridge, Graubunden, Switzerland

Maillart’s bridge over the Inn River in Zuoz (1900–1), made with reinforced concrete with a three-pinned arch construction, was the precedent for Salginatobel. The final loading test for this bridge was conducted by Wilhelm Ritter, who was able to witness the results of his teaching,8 a bridge design based on geometry and practical application, not purely from static mathematical calculations.

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cracks movement and changes in forces

cracks

cracks

Bridge without pins

movement and changes in forces

pin connection allows for movement, no cracks Bridge with three pin connections

Three-Pinned Arch

A three-pinned arch does not move with changes of force. It will not crack when wind, temperature, or earth movements are too strong, causing an arch to fail.9 It allows for movement while remaining structurally static. A fixed arch requires all unknown factors to be incorporated into the calculation. More material would be needed to make the structure stronger and therefore more expensive. The strategy to use a three-pinned arch made sense in Salginatobel, where the geologic instability would result in constant movement at the anchoring points.

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Structure in the Landscape

Notwithstanding the structural elegance to use a three-pinned arch construction, a bridge can connect two points in many different ways. It could also be cantilevered or suspended, requiring a tall structure from which the bridge deck is suspended. Consider a tower in the landscape of the Salgina, which would be out of proportion to the delicate landscape, as well as prohibitively expensive. As a plank across the gorge, it is an extension of the road, with322

out ostensibly marking itself. In summer, its monotone color alone makes it stand out as an object different from the trees and in the background, blue skies. In winter it blends into the snowy landscape; like the trees without leaves and covered in white, it becomes an object of nature.

Case Study: Bridge

Newspaper clipping: “Salginatobel Bridge: Call for Building Tender”

Call for Building Tender For the erection of an approximately 134 m long reinforced concrete or iron bridge over the Salginatobel along the Kommunalstrasse between Schiers to Schuders. Apply to the Canton Buildings Department in Chur for the necessary documents for tender which will be available from 16 July. All offers should be submitted in a sealed envelope headed with “Salginatobel Bridge” by 6 September to the Canton Buildings Department in Chur, where on the morning of 7 September until 11:00 offers can still be submitted. The offers are binding until 31 October 1928. Applicants are invited to an on-site inspection on 18 July, where a representative from Schiers Commune will be present. Meeting point will be at 10:20 at the Schiers Station. Chur, 12 Juli 1928

Cost

Case Study: Bridge

For the Canton Building Department J. Solca, Head Engineer

Maillart’s bridge bid was well below his competitors; however, when compared to the number of inhabitants it connected, it was relatively lavish. Due to the threepinned arch, it used less material than the other designs, which lowered its cost considerably, but at 700,000 Swiss francs, it could be calculated that for the eighty inhabitants of Schulders it cost 8,750 Swiss francs per person.10 323

B

A

Salginatobel Bridge Engineer: Robert Maillart Completed in 1930 132.3 meters long Arch span 90.4 meters Arch rise ca. 13 meters Structural system: three-pinned or hinged arch Material: fair-faced reinforced concrete

Details

ca. 90 m

90.4 m

Hinges or pin connection at abutment and at crown are important points on the bridge. These connections need to be strong enough to support the bridge and at the same time allow for movement. Similar to other materials, concrete contracts and expends depending on weather and other external forces. To accommodate this, there are gaps between the joints, which are filled with cork to allow movement. The internal steel reinforcement takes in the tension forces which is poor in concrete. The steel is more malleable and also able to take small changes in movement.

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A Hinge detail at abutment

1 Cork 2 Steel reinforcement 1

2

B Hinge detail at crown

Top side

Center line

2 1 2 3 4

Cork plate Steel reinforcement Concrete joint Hardwood

1

3 4

Underside

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Materials

Reinforced concrete is strong because concrete is in compression while the steel is in tension; the structure benefits from the inherent properties of both materials. It can be cast into any form, making it very flexible and able to create different shapes. It is weather-resistant and requires no additional covering, reducing costs for an extra material needed for a facade.

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Unlike most arch bridges built at this time, with masonry walls and decorative detailing, or with a cast-iron structure clad in stone, Maillart’s bridge made from fairfaced concrete was revolutionary. It was visually clear; the structure was apparent and there was no need for additional material or to compensate for additional structural support, allowing the bridge to be cost-effective. Case Study: Bridge

Maillart’s earlier Stauffacher Bridge in Zurich, built in 1899, had a granite and sandstone cladding. The aesthetic expectation was to build “stone” bridges, resulting

in iron bridges clad in stone. However, under the cladding of the Stauffacher Bridge is a concrete bridge which could have been left uncladded.

Tyne Bridge in Newcastle, 1928: a steel bridge with granite towers

Lambeth Bridge in London, 1932: Despite the simple stone piers, there are decorative stone obelisks and a color scheme that reflects the leather benches of the

Case Study: Bridge

House of Lords, in contrast to the neighboring Westminster Bridge, which was painted green to represent the benches of the House of Commons.

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Option 1

Centerline

Option 2

1m Hollow box girder

Based on Maillart’s sketch from 1929

Hollow Box Girder

3.80 m

The cross section of the bridge is similar to an extruded thin steel webbed flange, the top of which is the roadway. This form of structure uses a third of the material necessary in comparison to a solid arch.11 To use this principle in cast concrete was innovative, though structurally it was well known in steel construction. The combination of materials makes the bridge lighter and stronger. The flexibility of casting forms in concrete has an advantage in that exact amounts of material necessary can be calculated to achieve the correct form. The result is structurally and financially efficient.

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Construction Centering, noun A temporary structure, especially one made of timber, used to support an arch during construction. Collins Dictionary

A wooden structure was constructed by six men in the summer of 1929, with the aim of pouring the concrete in late summer. After one of the men fell 35 meters (which he fortunately survived), completion of the scaffolding was delayed until autumn. Concrete is a sensitive building material and needs optimal temperature conditions. If the weather is too hot, the concrete dries too quickly and is not strong enough, which results in cracking. It needs to be kept cool and moist to reach its optimal strength. The window of opportunity meant autumn was not ideal because of temperature and

Case Study: Bridge

weather conditions for in situ concrete. Thus, the concrete had to be pushed forward to 1930. It was mixed and placed on-site by hand. The complete process was finished within a three-month period.

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An alternative construction method is cantilevering, but it is a more expensive process. As it is, the formwork cost one-third of the total cost of the bridge. Construction began with the thin arch plate, which was poured simultaneously from both sides and was completed in forty hours.12

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The success of Maillart’s bridge lies not only in its structural efficiency and use of materials, which influenced its cost, but also his ability to think outside the parameters of standard conventions. This was in part due to Ritter’s teaching but also Maillart’s ability to balance all the factors that were necessary to make his bridge a viable alternative and at the same time create a bridge that is visually striking and innovative. Case Study: Bridge

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Footnotes

1. David Billington, Robert Maillart: Builder, Designer, and Artist. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1997, 136–46, here, 138. 2. Fritz Leonhardt, Brücken: Ästhetik und Gestaltung / Bridges: Aesthetics and Design. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1984, 193.

8. Billington, 1979, 18. 9. Ibid., 11. 10. Billington, 1997, 144. 11. Billington, 1974, 71. 12. Tapping, 5.2 Centring.

3. Erika Flückiger Strebel, Geschichte des Langsamverkehrs in der Schweiz des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts. Bern: Bundesamt für Strassen ASTRA, 2014, 8. 4. Flückiger Strebel, 9. 5. Andrew J. Tapping, “The Salginatobel Bridge,” Bridge Engineering 2 Conference 2007, May 4, 2007, University of Bath, Bath, UK. Accessed September 18, 2014, http://www.bath.ac.uk/ ace/uploads/StudentProjects/ Bridgeconference2007/conference/ mainpage/Tapping_Salginatobel.pdf, 2. 6. David Billington, Robert Maillart’s Bridges. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979, 6–8. 7. David Billington, “An Example of Structural Art: The Salginatobel Bridge of Robert Maillart,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 33, no. 1 (March 1974): 61–72, here, 67.

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Case Study

Cultural Building Glyndebourne Opera House

Interior of Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut: The building was completed in 1963, by architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; the library not only celebrates the collecting of rare books but is in the heart of an academic institution.

It doubles as an important cultural marker on two counts: as a repository of knowledge and as a dissemination point for learning.

Cultural buildings are the crowning luxury of a civilized society. Libraries, theaters, and museums are a collective place of knowledge and its exchange. Only societies that can afford to fund these activities are able to house them. As a consequence, the buildings are lavish and are built as places of importance. These are buildings meant to last centuries.

Case Study: Cultural Building

335

Teatro Amazonas, Manaus, Brazil, 1885–96

Teatro Amazonas, based on a photograph taken in 1896, while it was still under construction. The building is clearly the largest structure and dwarfs everything in the landscape, waiting for the city to be built around it.

Built in the middle of the Amazonian rainforest, the theater is a testament to the power of unbridled wealth of the rubber barons and a need to establish a cultured society in Manaus parallel to that of European cities. A legislative bill was passed in 1882 stating that the city needed a building for theatrical performance, explicitly noting that theater contributes to the civilization of a society.1 336

Case Study: Cultural Building

Opera Houses

Opera is a relatively modern entertainment. The first form was an intermedio, a musical interlude performed between acts of a play, often performed at weddings. The Medici wedding of 1589 in Florence is well documented and shows the nascent beginnings of the art,2 which also recorded how it bored the guests. However by the seventeenth century, opera became a popular form of Venetian entertainment. Opera houses sprang up in quick succession. No Case Study: Cultural Building

Engraving of the Naumachia, a mock sea battle performed in the Pitti Palace for the Medici wedding. The intermedio would be performed between another performance, and the themes of

each act followed the passing of time; morning, noon, afternoon, and evening. These acts were loosely connected and performed through singing and dancing.

longer exclusively catering to aristocrats, paying audiences were regaled with plays that highlighted Venice’s place in history. Opera became a vehicle for political direction.3

337

The Komische Oper in Berlin was originally built in 1892 and modernized in 1965. Despite this, it follows the tradition of plush red velvet and golden glitter.

Nineteenth-century opera houses were society’s meeting place, with special patrons’ boxes to highlight social hierarchy, no longer exclusively supported by the aristocracy but by a rising bourgeoisie. In keeping to middle-class aspirations, the interiors were royally plush with red velvet and gilt ornamentation.

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This perception remains to this day as the de rigueur interior style of opera houses. The plays in turn were more than entertainment; they were a platform for social commentary. The theaters reflected this and represented a microcosm of social life reinforced by their grandeur.

Case Study: Cultural Building

Private house theater and garden, with guests waiting to enter

Glyndebourne's History

In contrast, unlike the grand gestures of traditional cultural institutions, Glyndebourne was a private endeavor to create a venue for high-quality opera performances on an intimate scale. The original 300-seat theater was built as required by each generation. The success of the Opera Festival was not just based on the quality of the music. The setting within a country estate with a long interval for picnics between acts, the easy connection from London via rail, and the Case Study: Cultural Building

intimate theater space made the summer festival a seasonal must. However, by 1990, despite enlargement changes to accommodate a larger audience in 1952 and again in 1977, it was no longer viable without complete restructuring. This included not only a new financial plan but also a new theater.

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Timeline

1934

1936 1952 1977 1988 1989 1991 1994

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300-seat theater dedicated to rediscovering Mozart, with performances by the best singers and conductors Due to success, more seats are added, a total of 433 592 seats 845 seats Decision to expand to 1,200 seats, with a new building decided by an invited competition Architects chosen Start of construction May 28, opening night of the new opera house

John Christie’s initial idea was to create a theater dedicated to Mozart operas. His wife, Audrey Mildmay, who was a professional opera singer, was included in his vision to showcase her as one of the singers onstage. This was a time when artists were fleeing from Nazi Germany, allowing

Christie to gain the support of the conductor Carl Ebert and the producer Fritz Busch, who helped him realize his dream. Together, Christie was able to transform his idea into a summer opera festival with professional productions and musicians.

Case Study: Cultural Building

Building Background

The original theater was an impromptu building composed of recycled and secondquality materials due to financial limitations and construction speed. Despite these restrictions, the used bricks blended in well with the existing. Since it was a private endeavor, the progress of the building’s history was haphazard and improvised, and became part of its charm. The move to hire an architect was radical. The success of the festival was in part due to the intimate and Case Study: Cultural Building

The original “shoebox” theater of Glyndebourne: Performances were originally held in an extension of the organ room in Christie's private estate; later a 300-seat theater was built as an extension of his house.

familiar atmosphere. The new building would need to have these qualities as well as the necessary professional and technical infrastructure. In addition, the existing private home which the old building was attached to and the existing gardens had to be taken into consideration.

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Part of the inherent charm of the summer season is the mix of formal and informal.

Audience members relax with picnic baskets in bucolic surroundings during the long intermission, while the orchestra musicians take part in a round of croquet.4

Architectural To-Do List from George Christie*:5

1 An unavoidable necessity, the fly tower, would need to be acceptable in size and form. 2 Interior should be timber, “functional and friendly,” not plush velvet and gilt ornaments. 3 Acoustic quality, with high resonance and pure clarity. Every seat is a good seat. 4 Lighting should be atmospheric and low-voltage but give enough light for the audience to be able to read their programs. * John Christie’s son, who would set Glyndebourne’s future.

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Engraving of audience area, 1875, by Eduard Schure; note the slight inclination and uninterrupted view toward the stage on the left. The slightly raised “wall”

First Precedence, Richard-Wagner-Festspielhaus, Bayreuth

Case Study: Cultural Building

hides the orchestra from the audience and creates a buffer zone between the action onstage and the viewers and also the illusion of greater stage depth.

Specially conceived by Richard Wagner for the performance of his operas, the opera house in Bayreuth was based on a design by Gottfried Semper, which he designed for a theater in Munich. Wagner’s fan-shaped theater was unusual especially as there are no galleries or boxes. The idea focused on creating democratic seating, where all seats were equal. The interior is mainly wooden and the exterior plain with undecorated bricks.

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1

2

1 Stage 2 Double proscenium and orchestra pit 3 Fan-shaped theater

The double proscenium and recessed orchestra pit were considered by Wagner to be a special or “mystical”* area.

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3

* In German, mystischer Abgrund, which translates as a “mystical abyss.” Wagner wanted the audience to experience his operas as “delighted clairvoyants” and to accomplish this he needed a physical barrier between the action on stage and the viewers. This barrier was accomplished by Wagner’s special area.

Case Study: Cultural Building

Second Precedence, Baroque planning

The Royal Opera of Versailles, also known as the Théâtre Gabriel, was built to celebrate the wedding of the future king Louis XVI to Marie Antoinette in 1770. It is well known for its acoustics, which was due to its wooden interior. The theater moved away from the traditional Italian theaters; instead, two balcony levels ringed the oval plan. The wooden interior was painted to represent marble, and the room was dotted Case Study: Cultural Building

Royal Opera of Versailles 1770: the wedding celebrations of the future king Louis XVI to Marie Antoinette. Ink and wash drawing by Jean-Michel Moreau.

with mirrors to give the illusion of greater depth as well as to capture candlelight. The theater was also planned as a multifunctional space that could be converted to a ballroom as well as a banquet hall. It was said to need 10,000 candles to illuminate the space.6

345

Stage

Plan of Royal Opera of Versailles, opened 1770 Architect: Ange-Jacques Gabriel

The elliptical plan of the Théâtre Gabriel, with its three tiers, was unique and owes its geometry to Baroque church plans. The wooden interior, the horseshoe plan, elliptical geometry, buffer zone between audience and stage, and simple brick facade are all evident in the new Glyndebourne by Michael Hopkins and Partners.

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1

Glyndebourne: Radial Plan

2

3

4

1 Backstage rehersal area 2 Stage 3 Theater 4 Canopy above

The shoebox auditorium of the original acoustics without losing the intimacy of the Glyndebourne opera house was rectangular. old theater. In fact the radial plan was two meters shorter than the original. The distance from the back of the theater to the stage was a standard, set by the size The geometry of the complete building is of the new theater. The length still allowed a continuation of the grid set out from the for the necessary intimacy and desired atauditorium, which is mirrored in the backmosphere. However, it was necessary for stage rehearsal area that sandwiches the the space to have 50 percent more seats square fly tower. The overall geometric plan than the original shoebox. In a feasibility is reminiscent of elliptical plans of the study by a theater consultant, a fan-shaped Baroque. plan that seated more than 1,000 and with the back seats no further away than in the original theater was suggested as a possibility. However a radial plan was preferred, in part to enlarge the size for better Case Study: Cultural Building

347

“The semicircle is divided into 23 sections, giving a 3.3 m module, one a 24.2 m radius the distance to the outer face of the perimeter wall. This 3.3 m module continues a parallel course through the fly tower to the center of the auditorium, where it then repeats the radial sweep. As with so much about the building, this apparently simple solution has its origin in considerable effort.”7 Mark Whitby, structural engineer

Structure

The continuous double elliptical brickwork is the main structural element of the building. The load-bearing brick wall, of which the external arched brickwork is 334 millimeters thick, supports the precast concrete beams which take on the load of the precast concrete floor. The structural grid is apparent inside the theater. The concrete columns are placed at even segments and the ring beam supports the precast concrete ceiling.

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Fan-shaped, good sight lines versus horseshoeshaped, bad sight lines “People don’t realize that a theater where every seat has excellent sight lines is not a good theater. A good theater invariably has some seats with bad sight lines. The fan shape may be suitable for cinemas but is not appropriate for opera houses where the audience, and the sense of occasion that comes with it, are essential to the spectacle and the excitement.”8 Iain Mackintosh, theater specialist and consultant

Acoustic preference to horseshoe form “The acoustics consultant Derek Sugden had spoken of the auditorium as a kind of inhabited musical instrument. According to Sugden, the ideal auditorium acoustically would be a cylinder, ringed by single rows of seats on balconies so that all members of the audience would be close to the ‘sounding board’ of the cylinder wall.”9

7

1 4

4

2

3 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Elliptical Plan

Case Study: Cultural Building

Backstage Stage Audience Work rooms Circulation foyer To garden Loading bay

5

6

The plan cleverly uses its elliptical form to create circulation layers in the theater or public side, while in the working or private areas these zones are used as dressing rooms, offices, or support rooms. The delineation of public to private is accentuated by the turret staircases which in plan can be seen as a single line crossing the ellipse. The ellipse easily absorbs the square of the fly tower without disrupting the overall form and grid. In elevation, the changes in rooftop break down the massive form and at the same time mark each different function within the building. In modernist architectural terms, it is honest about its function. 349

Pinus palustris

Eighteenth century

Nineteenth century

Found along the Mississippi River, the Longleaf pine is a slow-growing tree that reaches its full size in 125 years. It has a high resin content, and its sap was harvested for turpentine and rosin.

The Longleaf pine was used for shipbuilding, as it was immune to decay and termites due to its high resin content. It was also used as ballast for British ships.

The ballast from ships was sold and reused to build flooring and joists in industrial buildings and docks.

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Twentieth century The reclaimed pitch pine timber is long, straight, hard, and resinous in quality. The advantages of using reclaimed wood is its deep hue due to its high resin content, which also protects the wood from humidity and gives the auditorium a patina of richness which is not possible with new wood.

Case Study: Cultural Building

For Glyndeborne, the decision to use reclaimed would was in keeping with its tradition of a low-key and unpretentious setting. The curved “bombe” balconies were curved not as a decorative gesture but to make the imperfection from fill holes made from nails and bolts less noticeable. The richness of the wood provided the interior with warmth and patina since there is no paint, wallpaper, carpet, gilt, or plush velvet.10 As in the plan, there is a hint of the baroque, in the curved form of the balconies.

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Concrete module

Precast Concrete

The foundation concrete was poured onsite, which is always critical, since concrete is a sensitive material, liable to change due to humidity or mixing or pouring. Despite its uniform appearance, concrete is constantly reacting to moisture. It must be poured uniformly and with no air bubbles, which affect its structural integrity, aspects which are hard to control in unpredictable site situations.

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The visible concrete areas were precast modules produced off-site. The elements are made to exact sizes and poured under factory conditions. The high quality is easier to control and to achieve. Production off-site allowed other building works to continue simultaneously with the casting of the modules. The disadvantage is that all the necessary openings and connection pieces had to be planned in advance, as changes on-site would be difficult. The lighting holes and structural junction pieces were planned before the casts could be made.

Case Study: Cultural Building

The fly tower or the black box: Patty Hopkins describes the material change of the fly tower to lead as func-

tional “honesty. It shows this is a working place. It proclaims what tough, difficult, complex business it is to put on operas.”11

Fly Tower, the Big Black Box

The original shoebox auditorium used the natural slope of the hill to take in the height of the tower. The new plans required a 180-degree shift, which resulted in digging deep into the hill. The new fly tower was 6.7 meters taller than its predecessor, but since it was inset into the landscape it was visually more reduced than it would have been in its previous position. The new plan also allowed the gardens to connect directly to the auditorium, allowing for a more natural transition between the two, and distancing the fly tower from the landscape.

Case Study: Cultural Building

The fly tower was originally planned as a brick building but was later changed to lead when it was clear that construction time would not allow for a brick construction. Notwithstanding the use of traditional materials and construction methods, there is a very modernist tendency to focus on the clarity of use and its materials. It is therefore fitting that the tough lead material is used in areas where work is done rather than the warm brick for the visitors.

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30% more seats

Percentage of cheap seats

Funding

New Theater 90% Private donations

1200 seats

36% cheap seats

1977 845 seats

12% cheap seats

28% Donor’s seats

Old Theater

Cost: Not to Exceed 33 Million Pounds

The time frame for construction was limited to missing one season; a Glyndebourne season is six weeks in summer. To miss a second season would be a financial disaster.

of the previous theater) to achieve the aim of increasing the audience base. This was a measure to secure a stable financial base.12

There was an element of luck: the fund-raising took place during the financial upswing About 90 percent of the new theater was of the 1980s. The skilled labor necessary funded by private donors, who received in for the brickworks and timber works, as turn 28 percent of the seats. The theater well as the availability of the materials, was increased its total seat count by 50 percent; only possible during the recession of the and 36 percent of the total would be 1990s. Without these two external financial “cheap seats“ (as compared to 12 percent conditions, a different building would have been built to conform to the tight budget and short construction time. 354

Case Study: Cultural Building

Bay Detail Wooden beams

Structural ties

Brickwork, note the flat arches Radiating concrete beams

Concrete beam tied back into brick

Details for Brickwork

Arches for the bay were very flat, the center rise being only 2.5 centimeters. Despite this, there were no additional steel or concrete supports, as would normally be found in contemporary buildings. Two layers of brick walls, each 22 centimeters, with a cavity of 50 millimeters in between, acted as an acoustic buffer for the auditorium and formed the main structure.13 The bricks were load-bearing, taking in the load of the precast concrete beams that supported the precast concrete floors. A traditional lime putty mortar was used that is hard on the exterior and remains soft inside since its Case Study: Cultural Building

hardness is caused by air exposure. This allows for flexibility without additional expansion joints, unlike a modern cement joint, which hardens, requiring expansion joints to avoid cracking.14 A standard mortar joinery is 10 millimeters. At Glyndebourne, it is between 8 and 6 millimeters at the arches.

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Workforce: Bricklayers Skilled bricklayers were necessary since, unlike most contemporary buildings that use bricks as non-load-bearing decorative facade elements, the bricks here were loadbearing. This traditional construction method required bricklayers who were able to build in this manner. It was necessary that they had experience with structural brick construction.

Bricklayers were first tested on-site before being hired. At the start of construction, a single arch needed two bricklayers, and it took five days for an arch to be built. By the end of construction, the bricklayers were able to build an arch in half the time.15

Material: Brick

In keeping with the original building, bricks are the main material of the new building. All bricks were made from a single clay source coming from one brickwork. The sizes were imperial rather than metric since the older sizes conformed better to the design requirements. There were 400 arches and each arch had bricks that were cut from a single column of clay.16 This insured a uniformity of material. It also provided a 356

visual cleanness; despite the use of an old material and a traditional construction method, the building still conveys a sense of modernity.

Case Study: Cultural Building

Iain Machintosh, theatre consultant: “Good acoustics in an opera house require approximately 7 cubic meters volume per member of the audience – compared to 4 cubic meters for a playhouse and 10 for a concert hall. Yet until recently this simple statistic wasn’t known. Look at the Olivier. It's 11 cubic meters per person and people can’t hear.”17

1 Stage 2 Audience 3 Sound insulation layers

1

2

3

Acoustics

The horseshoe plan creates an intimate atmosphere but is a challenge for good acoustics. Sounds can bounce off and back into the audience in a circular plan. Unlike traditional auditoriums, there are no additional soft surfaces, such as fabric panels and carpeting. There are only hard surfaces, presenting difficulty for good sound quality. Case Study: Cultural Building

The shape and form of the balconies, walls, and ceiling took into account how the sound would be buffered or distributed in the space. Massive walls and special sealing for doors helped reduce background noises. Even the ventilation system was affected: the sound of air was reduced by having the air flow under the seats and moving the plant room away from the main building. A scale model at 1:50 was built to help determine these design decisions.18 357

Seat pedestal grill Floor Underfloor air cavity

Fresh air

Services

In contrast to the structural system, the services, ventilation, electricity, and water are hidden from view in the public areas; only in the working areas of the building are they exposed. To maintain the low background noise levels, the power plants are located outside the building, away from the auditorium and stage. Air ducts are discreetly integrated into or buried deep under the building. 358

The circular auditorium has a concentric layer around it that serves as an additional sound barrier and as a lobby, audience circulation, and services hub. The void between the raised and structural floor is used as air receptors from the vertical ducts. The air is then released through the perforated metal pedestal chair supports into the auditorium. As the theater is only used in the summer months, there are no heating concerns. Case Study: Cultural Building

Tensile canopied foyer, an informal transition from outdoors to indoors.

Garden

Part of Glyndebourne’s charm is the long interlude, when the audience can picnic in the garden between acts. This interesting clash of formal and informal is reflected in the building. The structural brick arches that support the building create at the ground level an arcade around the auditorium. There is no designated front entrance; the concentric circular plan opens itself up and

Case Study: Cultural Building

flows into the garden. A tensile canopy between the new building and old marks the foyer. The change in the building’s orientation only affected greenery that interfaced with new building entry points, and so the old garden for the most part remained untouched.

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1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1

Main entrance House Opera house Box office Picnic meadows Gardens Parking

3

2

5

4

7

6

Picnicking in the garden was not just an important part of Glyndebourne’s unique aura. It also allowed the performers and workers to break the restrictions of indoor rehearsals, and take breaks outdoors, creating a more relaxed atmosphere for all involved. In the 1930s, when there were outdoor rehearsals and the boat pond was used “between rehearsals, artists gently floated among the water lilies, swans and flamingoes. It was an idyllic setting that inspired many of them to attain greater heights on stage.”19

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It was important that the building take full advantage of the garden. Despite the construction of a single massive building, they accomplished this by the changing rooftop and by its nonintervention in the existing gardens. The site plan shows that parking is tucked away from the gardens.

Case Study: Cultural Building

Glyndebourne is an extremely well-balanced building; it is both austere and luxurious. The formal is counterbalanced by the informal, a balance whose success is dependent on a team of experts. From its initial design stage through construction, this team was responsible for constructing this deceivingly simple-looking building – a simplicity that is enhanced by its limited palette of materials and clarity of plan.

Case Study: Cultural Building

The rigid geometry in plan is optimally used, though in reality a visitor never experiences this, since the first layer is a perambulatory arcade that focuses in toward the auditorium and is not circulatory around the building. The focus outward and inward bridges the garden back to the theater and vice versa, breaking the traditional formality of opera houses, very much in the Glyndebourne tradition. It is a very modernist building at heart, but in its execution it is deceptively traditional and visually blends into its bucolic setting.

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Footnotes

1. “Amazon Theatre,” Wikipedia. Accessed September 22, 2015, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Amazon_Theatre. 2. Roger Parker, The Oxford Illustrated History of Opera. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994, 13. 3. Parker, 21–23. 4. Marcus Binney and Rosy Runciman, Glyndebourne. London: Thames and Hudson, 67. 5. Binney and Runciman, 90–92. 6. “Royal Opera of Versailles,” Wikipedia. Accessed October 29, 2015, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ L’Opera_of_the_Palace_of_Versailles.

10. Ibid., 40. 11. Binney and Runciman, 106. 12. “Glyndebourne Issue,” 65. 13. Ibid., 50. 14. Binney and Runciman, 119. 15. Ibid., 119. 16. Ibid., 118. 17. Ibid., 97. 18. “Glyndebourne Issue,” 56. 19. Binney and Runciman, 66.

7. “Glyndebourne Issue.” The Architectural Review 195 (June 1994): 34–66, here, 51. 8. Ibid., 96. 9. Ibid., 43.

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Case Study

Cities Urban Public Spaces

How do cities change? Cities grow and contract depending on population. Changes depend on infrastructure, economy, politics, social upheavals, and location. Some cities extend their boundaries, while others create new districts and in extreme cases establish a new city to take on the overpopulation.

Cities are complex entities, formed by many factors; including the political, social, economic, geographic, and cultural. A single building in an urban fabric is part of a much larger scheme and can influence areas beyond its site boundaries. Alternatively, a lack of built-up spaces can equally impact a neighborhood’s quality. These may be plazas, parks, parking lots, or derelict plots of land.

Palmanova: A new city founded in 1593 by the Venetians, it was a fortress town bordering on the Ottoman Empire. Based on utopian principles of the time, and drawn up with humanistic ideals on divine geometry, it was conceived as a perfect city. Unfortunately, the main obstacle was that no one wanted to leave Venice to move so close to the eastern borders.

Whether it is a place people are attracted to or not depends on qualities that extend beyond site boundaries. Shared urban spaces are accessible to all and often present a challenge between public and private investments. Case Study: Cities

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London, Extended Boundaries: The City of London, founded by the Romans, is a small area in the center of what is now Greater London. Thirtythree districts or boroughs make up Greater London, which is geographically held together by a motorway and a greenbelt. The city is a

collection of towns and villages that with the passage of time grew together as the city’s population increased and its borders extended. Note: The small red area marks the original city.

Pudong Master Plan, 1992– 94, from Rogers, Stirk, Harbour Partnership: The underdeveloped area of Pudong was earmarked by the city of Shanghai as a new center of growth, to take in an anticipated 13 to 17 million new inhabitants within a five-year period. The focus of the master plan is creating trans-

portation rings. The distance for pedestrians, automobiles, and public transport are calculated to keep movement between places both reasonable and quick. Neighborhoods are comprised of a mixture of commercial and residential, and easily accessible public spaces and parks.1

One aspect of a city’s quality is how urban public spaces are used. Are these spaces attractive? The respite from built-up urban quarters is found in open public areas. They are found in the idealized Renaissance city of Palmanova and the highly pragmatic plans for Pudong. The aim is clear: a city’s success lies in how attractive its infrastructure is in relation to where it is located and whether it is economically viable. The difficulty lies in how this is achieved. 366

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Traffic

Historic importance

Funding: public and private

Surrounding buildings

Open urban space

Good infrastructure, for example, WiFi, public transport

Neighborhood, socioeconomic factor

Safety and clean spaces

Geographic situation Forces that define the quality and success of public spaces

Amassing data for city ranking, especially for quality of life, is a trend that influences global companies for relocation of regional headquarters. It is also used to enhance a city’s public image. This chapter deals not with large-scale urban planning issues but on how small public spaces can redefine and reestablish areas from urban attrition. These are spaces that are ignored or in the worst cases that allow neighborhoods to decline and deteriorate. Case Study: Cities

From an architectural viewpoint, the focus is on how areas can manifest urban communities. Larger civic policy decisions are beyond an architect’s scope of work, but a building’s placement addresses urban issues and is part of a design.

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Road maps show the flow and direction of traffic and methods of movement in a city. There are indications of public transport stops, places of interest, and road names.

Topographical maps show the different geological heights of a city. It is also possible to find out whether a building is on level ground or not. The pale beige squiggly lines in the map above indicate level changes. The closer together the lines are, the more steep the area is.

Maps Form the Basis of how We Understand a City

Compiling information from various maps provides a comprehensive overview of a city or districts within a city. The analysis of building to open space density, traffic patterns, topographical changes, or site boundaries help determine how new changes in one spot can affect the whole. The relationship of a single building or open space to its immediate neighborhood is clear and can support or discourage new proposals.

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The structure of a city, or its grid, is clearly set out in a figure ground diagram. This a map of the city where the relationship between built and unbuilt urban spaces is clearly marked with built areas in black and what is left in white. It indicates how densely built an area is and the pattern and structure of growth.

This map shows land boundaries, land ownership, the sizes of neighboring parcels, and areas belonging to the public. There is also for each site a detailed planning key, with height and buildingrelated restrictions. It is the most important plan for information concerning a building site.

Maps are analyzing tools. Comparisons between urban space in preindustrial, historical, or industrial cities illustrate how closely linked open urban spaces are to a community’s economic and social structure.

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The Medina of Fes: A preindustrial city, dating from 789 AD, the map is nearly black. There is no real public space in the Medina. To the right of the blue line, which marks the river, is where the modern city of Fes begins. The tannery in yellow is the largest open space. The stink of urine

used to cure the leather makes it an unattractive gathering area. The paths within the Medina are used by pedestrians and mules transporting goods, as the road is not wide enough for cars.

Siena: A medieval and Renaissance city, Siena is not quite industrial, although movement is clearly an important factor. The city is less dense and roads are centralized, leading to the Campo, the large white area where all roads lead to.

Figure ground maps show the relationship between built density and open space. It is clear that there is a relationship between how densely built a city is and its economic, industrial, and social structure. How streets are formed also indicate the importance of traffic flow and indirectly the quality of movement.

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Paris, Beaubourg: Paris is an old city, which has been modified and razed to accommodate modern life. The public space in front of the Centre Pompidou was not part of the historical city. It was created with the new building.

New York City, Madison Square Park: In contrast, Madison Square Park was designated an open green area from 1686 by its first royal governor. It remains an important traffic junction and urban meeting point.

The change in figure ground diagrams from premodern to modern cities is dramatic. Movement is essential. Not only are people rushing from place to place but easily accessible roads are needed to facilitate economic growth through the transportation of goods. Highly industrialized cities rely on clear access routes. As a city’s density increases, open public spaces are key points in a neighborhood’s quality. Case Study: Cities

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The satellite dishes that now cover the rooftops indicate that there is indeed a modern element in the Medina. The challenge for architects and planners is finding the balance between modernization, restoration, and

maintenance without losing the Medina’s character and without disrupting a delicate social, economic, and cultural structure that keeps the area alive.

Preindustrial City: Fes, Morocco

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The city’s internal arrangement is closely related to its economic and social structure. The buildings are low and crowded. There is a rigid segregation between private and public spaces. Walls seal off houses and city gates are closed at night. Different city districts reflect social divisions. Ethnic groups live in their own sectors. Occupations are found grouped in their own areas. There is no business center since there is no industry, which is marked by the fact that a craftsman-based economy has prevented the growth of a leisured middle class. Religious buildings serve as city centers.2

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Place Seffarine: The sound of pounding metal dominates the small area used by metalworkers, where their products are made and sold.

Chouara Tannery: The largest open area is the tannery. The leather is cured in urine and dyed in situ. Next to the curing area, the leather is sold as raw goods or as a finished product.

The Medina is divided into districts for metalworkers, tanners, weavers, carpenters, potters; all busy producing their goods and simultaneously selling their products. Traditionally there is no need in this framework to have a shop, where goods are assembled and sold. In this form of society there is no middle class acting as agents for a working class. The main communal meeting points are mosques, but its access is restricted by religion and sex. All these factors influence the physical makeup of the city.

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Piazza del Campo, Siena, Italy

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Siena is a city locked in a time period. Due to its geographic isolation, stagnant economy after a boom period, and population decimation after a war and epidemic, it remains static. Siena was originally an insignificant Roman town and later a trading post between Rome and the north. A republic from the eleventh century to the midsixteenth century, it was prosperous and owes much of its architectural growth and character to this time. The two most prominent places are in front of the church and the Plaza del Campo, the seat of local government. The conscious preservation of its urban character is a reminder of Siena’s 300 years as a republic before it was engulfed by Emperor Charles V and its importance waylaid by stagnating economic conditions.

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In contrast to the Medina, the large open space is a tribute to a communal civic government supported by an affluent middle class. The siting of the piazza is the meeting point of three hills. The streets converge on the piazza, accentuating it as a central point. A series of decrees from the twelfth-century republic stipulated standards to make the piazza facades uniform. The starting point was the facade of the Palazzo Pubblico, the seat of government. The ordinances were active decisions to create and maintain building codes. This ensured that there were no changes and imposed preservation. Siena’s medieval center is still intact and its economic future is dominated by its historical importance rather than as a continually evolving city. Modernity is found outside its center.

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1960 34% world population

2014 54% world population

2050 70% world population

WHO and the Future of Global Cities: The World Health Organization has noted that by 2050 nearly 70 percent of the world’s population will be urban dwellers, up from 34 percent in 1960, and 54 percent in 2014. Cities are responsible for 60 percent of global economic output. Even in lower-income countries, one-third of the population live in urban areas and 55 percent of a coun-

try’s GDP comes from cities.3 It is clear that urbanization is a key to economic success, yet this rise brings with it not only health issues but also quality issues. How can a city provide better quality of life within a context of constant growth and change? And how are global issues dealt with on a local and regional level?

Open Spaces in an Industrial City

The demands of modern industrial cities require constant change. Vagaries in economic prosperity, population density, and modernization influence the urban landscape. Open spaces generate important meeting points and define the quality of life for its inhabitants. Neglected and mismanaged spaces detract from the community and can have disastrous consequences on a district or even have a negative impact on the city. 376

The race for cities, now in global competition, to maintain and attract inhabitants and businesses demands that detailed attention on urban quality has an impact on decisions for relocation for international concerns as well as for workers seeking new places to live.

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The Modern City: Postwar Planning

The most dramatic change was after the Second World War. It made no difference whether a city was a victor or loser: after a battle, there are always scars. The damage to European cities during the war gave impetus for planners to consider rebuilding or to start anew. Should ruined historical cities be razed for modern infrastructure? Was it better to reconstruct and mend old cities? How could destruction be avoided in the future? Architects and planners tried to anCase Study: Cities

Brasilia, founded in 1960, was designed by city planner Lucio Costa and architect Oscar Niemeyer. A rationally planned city, moving the capital from Rio de Janiero to a more central location, it represents a top-down urbanplanning concept. The focus is on a global perspective of urban issues rather than one responding to local needs.

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Embassies Ministries University Penitentery Hospitals Business hotels Banks Sports center Row Houses Apartment towers Cemetary Suburbs Airport

swer these questions with global solutions, in the belief that if there is worldwide uniformity, then perhaps the differences that led to conflict would be eliminated, naively concluding that living in similar conditions worldwide would lead to an end to future conflicts. Though Brazil did not suffer from mass urban destruction, it looked to the future and undertook to create a new capital that would reflect the goals of a postwar future. 377

Brasilia was the realization of planning through universal rational solutions to handle the changing needs of a modern city. The main emphasis was on automotive transportation. City districts were classified by function. There were clear areas for culture, government ministries, shopping, housing; all designed for vehicular access, not pedestrian. In contrast, European cities were a chaotic mixture with seemingly no order and not always suited for cars and trucks. The postwar, damaged city centers gave planners the opportunity to start afresh. Modernization could take the form of a tabula rasa of devastated or unwanted neighborhoods, new infrastructure, or satellite city extensions. 378

The global trend was to find all-encompassing solutions, not community-based projects. For postwar planners, it was unusual for decisions to be influenced by local needs.

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Postwar children in Amsterdam, reduced to playing in rubble

Amsterdam’s Playgrounds

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Limited public funds, a city riddled with urban ruin, a war-weary population, and a boom of postwar babies is a scenario that nearly all postwar European cities were faced with. In Amsterdam, the few remaining public playgrounds were overcrowded, and with a growing number of postwar babies, the need for more play areas was urgent. Children were found playing in abandoned lots or dismantling damaged streets to loosen cobbles to play with the sand underneath.4 Residents began to petition city planners for playgrounds.

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Rapenburg previously 26– 38, Amsterdam postwar empty lot

Rapenburg previously 26–38, Amsterdam Aldo van Eyck playground

The Dutch architect Aldo van Eyck, who worked for Amsterdam’s Department of Urban Design, responded to local citizens who demanded safe urban spaces for their children by creating neighborhood playgrounds. From 1947 to 1978, he designed nearly 700 playgrounds.

Resources and materials were limited throughout postwar Europe, which influenced the physical possibilities of these playgrounds. Simple changes in floor patterns or strategically placed stepping stones or semicircular jungle gyms or sand pits defined play areas. The simplicity of the spaces were designed to intentionally spur the imagination of a child, to allow them to create their own forms of play.

Given the international architectural leaning for global solutions, van Eyck’s action was radical. Rather than a top-down approach, where governments dictated solutions to urban problems, his was a bottom-up response, responding directly to public needs.

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Zaanhof 28–34, Amsterdam postwar playground from Aldo van Eyck

The playgrounds were built quickly to provide immediate succor. The boundary was defined by the borders of derelict lots. This allowed planners to have the option for future urban changes without investing in new infrastructure. The playgrounds were simply a pragmatic clean-up rather than part of a greater master-plan solution. This made it easier to have them spring up as needed and to change when a more encompassing solution presented itself.

space, they were immediately successful and did not demand that inhabitants adapt to the dictates of local or national government planning.

These transformed lots were useful social meeting points. As each lot was solved individually, the solutions were site-specific and unique. As a user-motivated community Case Study: Cities

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Greater Antwerp Traffic Routes

Urban Movement and Old Cities: Antwerp, Belgium

In older cities, where existing streets are too narrow or too difficult for cars to maneuver, urban modernization that focuses on automotive solutions can fracture existing neighborhoods or destroy open community spaces. Overly large pedestrian zones are economically impractical, preventing vehicular access, while constant traffic congestion is equally unattractive. There is a need for quick and efficient access, as city centers rely heavily on uninterrupted pedestrian and vehicular routes.

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The charm of cities like Antwerp is their historical centers, where there are pockets of public urban spaces with street cafés and unexpected street fairs and market stalls within the confines of narrow streets. The quality of life is maintained by keeping these spaces intact. Unfortunately, these streets are not viable for modern vehicular access and traffic volume. The solution was to limit the amount of motor vehicles without restricting movement and with minimal changes in infrastructure.

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par kin g ide free Qu ays

Main Station

Velo Antwerp points, historical center

Park and Ride

A combination of trams, buses, bicycles, and well-situated free parking areas encourage visitors to use a park-and-ride system which helps reduce traffic jams and keep movement flowing but under control. Unused quayside docks converted to free public parking keep cars outside the center but close enough to walk to. A circular highway ring around the old city’s perimeter prevents congestion without reducing access to the center. Velo Antwerp, an initiative for bike rentals, with pickup and drop-off points throughout, encourages visiCase Study: Cities

tors to use bicycles as an alternative form of transportation. In conjunction with free automotive parking, public transportation, and subsidized bikes, movement remains constant, fast, and convenient while keeping quiet urban public spaces intact.

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How Velo Antwerp works: To make it work, the system relies on immediate accessibility, which is provided by an app. Smart phones help locate stations, their availability, and all necessary information. Easy-to-understand color coding of stations tells users which are full, have bikes, no bikes, or are out of order. An infrastructure of bike transporting carriages travels throughout Antwerp replenishing

Small squares paved with cobblestones, lined with trees, and street cafés serving exotically flavored beers is a common scene in Antwerp and one kept in balance through conscious preservation of traditional public areas. Velo Antwerp is a mixture of a high- and low-technology solution to keep a way of urban life from disappearing.

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empty stations and restoring those out of order. The cost of a rental is free for the first half hour, once one has registered to be a member, which comes with a small nominal fee. The distances in Antwerp are short, so most rides can be conducted within thirty minutes, which adds to the scheme’s attraction.

While anticipating a necessity for constant movement, a bicycle reduces this speed to human levels, and while still mechanical, it is the most primitive form of modern transportation. It is an urban infrastructure solution that in its low-key simplicity keeps the charm of an older city while in tune with a global pace of life.

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The street scene is based on a photograph of the Beaubourg Quartier from 1900, commissioned by Albert Kahn. A successful banker, he spent his fortune sending photographers not only to record Paris but around the world to capture different cultures and ways of life. He believed that if one

saw the day-to-day lives of those in faraway places, one would understand the foreign and strange, ultimately creating tolerance among people and thereby eliminating wars. Sadly, within his lifetime, he would live through the First World War, which would bring an end to the way of life he so carefully documented.

The Influence of a Single Building, Beaubourg Quartier, Paris

Before Georges-Eugène Haussmann was appointed as the Prefect of Paris by Napoleon III in 1853, Paris had not changed since the Middle Ages. A preindustrial city in industrial times, it was overcrowded, ridden with disease, and had a high crime rate. Haussmann’s plans changed Paris by widening streets, creating squares and a large public park. Boulevards connected north to south, west to east, and created an urban network between arrondissements. Despite destroying large areas of ancient Paris, the boulevards modernized and sanitized the city. Case Study: Cities

By 1870 Haussmann was no longer in charge; despite this, his plans continued to be carried out until the 1920s. The Beaubourg Quartier, however, was not affected by these plans. It was dark, badly ventilated, and, according to Robert Koch in 1882, a perfect place to incubate tuberculous bacteria. In 1884 it was condemned for demolition but no action was taken.5 In 1913 a list was compiled with quartiers ranked by tuberculous deaths. Not surprisingly, Beaubourg headed the list.

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Sketch based on a photograph of the Centre Pompidou site in 1970 before construction, showing a large parking area surrounded by some derelict buildings and lots.

After the First World War, financial deficits prevented any demolition work, and it was only in 1930 that there was enough funding to raze the site. It remained an empty lot for parking until the 1970s when a competition was announced to build a new cultural center.

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Interior, open flexible spaces Private/public zone Open escalators and viewing platforms “Closed side” with exposed services

Street with heavy traffic

View to city View to plaza, to building View to plaza

Parking

Diagram section of Centre Pompidou and Place Georges Pompidou

The Centre Pompidou

The new building was to house a contemporary art museum, a theater, a center for modern music, and the first public library in France. The aim was to make Paris a pivotal point for global culture. The winning entry from Renzo Piano and Richard Rogers was a rectangular box, 150 meters by 50 meters and 50 meters tall. The architectural team interpreted the brief as a multifunctional building, fully transparent and open to the public. The building closed the site on Rue Beaubourg, where traffic was heavy, and left half the site unbuilt for an open plaza, unlike other proposals, which filled the site.

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Sketch based on Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, A Street Show in Paris, 1760, by depicting popular theater characters from the commedia dell'arte, which was very popular in the eighteenth century.

The reason to create an open plaza, was this: while Paris was dotted with squares, there was no real space for itinerant street performers, despite a tradition in Paris of street artists. The architects kept this in mind when they created the Place Georges Pompidou in front of their building. Throughout Europe from the Middle Ages to late nineteenth century, street performance was a way to communicate information to the general public.

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Commedia dell’arte was particularly popular in eighteenth-century Paris and was performed at fairgrounds. The theater pieces were sometimes used to criticize rulers and contemporary politics. It became a form of protest. It was banned during the French Revolution. During Napoleon’s reign, performers used masks to hide their identity until the commedia dell’arte was permanently banned.

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Street performers, Place Georges Pompidou, with Centre Pompidou as backdrop and as audience platform.

By leaving half the site empty, a single building and its placement on-site creates an attractive meeting point in the quarter. The public and private zones are intentionally blurred by the facade facing the plaza. The building is easily accessed, with exposed escalators rising to viewing platforms, which invite visitors to enter the building or to remain to view the activities below. On the ground level, the center’s facade acts as a backdrop for performers,

Case Study: Cities

engaging an audience who sit on the slightly sloped ground. The facade creates a bridge between the high culture within and the street culture on the plaza level. The design intentionally supports both activities; the open space serves an equally important function as those housed within.

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Two-way traffic on 23rd Street, Broadway and Fifth Avenue made the junction at Madison Square especially hazardous since the traffic consisted of horse carriages, pedestrians, automobiles, buses, and trams.

23rd Street

Madison Square Park: Traffic Patterns and Islands as Urban Space

Manhattan could be considered an ideal city for movement, an orthogonal grid running north–south and east–west; clear and easy access in all directions. Broadway, which diagonally intersects the grid, was originally an Indian trail and was later used by the Dutch settlers as a road. It is one of the oldest streets in Manhattan and predates the grid plan of 1811. The intersections at Times Square and Madison Square Park created awkward traffic junctions. Particularly at Madison Square Park, where not only various types of traffic converged but 390

also led to the park that caters to a neighborhood of fluctuating characters that influenced how it is used and accessed. Green areas were encouraged in New York as public spaces that benefited health and well-being.6 The area of Madison Square Park was first designated as a public space in 1686 and in the 1870s was landscaped by Ignatz Pilat, which to this day remains unchanged.

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Traffic Junction as Barrier

The southern end of the park is 23rd Street, which has always been a major traffic link; in the 1830s to the railroad, in the 1850s as the location of the ticket office to the New Jersey ferry, from the 1860s to 1870s for cable car connections, in the 1870s as a link to the elevated rails on Sixth Avenue and 1920s to 1930s as a two-way vehicular intersection on Broadway and Fifth Avenue. Despite changes in modes of transportation by the turn of the twentieth century, motorized cars, horse-drawn carriages, doubledecker buses, and pedestrians used this junction, with traffic in all directions, making Case Study: Cities

it a dangerous crossroad. Similarly the buildings that faced the park ranged from private homes, hotels, a church, a courthouse, an entertainment hall, a restaurant, offices, industrial centers, factories, museum showrooms, and memorials. While there is metamorphosis of users, the general character of the park and its surroundings is unchanged. The intersection of Broadway, Fifth Avenue, and 23rd Street was a life-threatening crossing and a barrier to the park. 391

Homeless-occupied park benches Drug litter

Vehicular traffic

Office buildings with no storefronts Barriers to the park

Additional Barriers Created through Economic and Social Crisis

From 1979 to 1999, New York City suffered an extreme economic decline, which led to higher crime rates and fewer civic funds to maintain parks. In 1976 the city was nearly bankrupt. The blackout of 1977 caused complete urban chaos, with rioting and looting. There were 1,814 reported homicides in 1980, which led to a mass exodus out of the city. The introduction of crack and heroin led to a further rise of homicides to 2,246 by 1990.7 Budget cuts resulted in fewer police patrols, and throughout this period there was wide-scale police corruption, adding to urban decline. 392

During these upheavals, Madison Square Park remained physically unchanged. There was an improvement in traffic flow from two-way to one-way on Broadway. Still, pedestrians faced difficulties crossing Broadway and Fifth Avenue. The park itself became isolated by office buildings to the east, traffic to the west, and an increase in drug users and dealers within. It was an unattractive and unsavory place to go.

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bike path extended sidewalk Traffic Island

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After

Economic Growth and Community Awareness

A shift in the economic and political climate from 2000 onward reduced crime in the city. A new interest from local community groups provided an influx of private-public initiated programs. Further changes in traffic patterns, a restoration of the park, and the emergence of privately driven public works contributed to revitalizing the area. The metamorphosis is apparent: the park and the traffic islands are flooded with users, bringing new life to the previously unpopulated public space.

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Streets are narrowed and larger traffic islands are formed, on which street furniture creates an open-café-cum-living-room atmosphere. Changes in street material and colors denote bike paths, sidewalks, and cafés; oversized planting pots form protection and boundaries.8

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Oversized planters help define boundaries between traffic and street “living rooms.” It is a public area with free access. Private security in uniforms similar to city police patrol the area. Containers for waste collection

are clearly marked with recycling in mind. Despite the use of public land, the services provided are paid by the private sector.

The changes made are similar to Amsterdam’s playgrounds. Measures such as extensions of traffic islands by simple adjustments in road material and an addition of street furniture are temporary and costeffective. However, unlike Amsterdam, the initiative is partially financed and maintained by a private organization formed by local businesses. Residents are invited to participate in discussions concerning change and improvement, but ultimately the decisions are made by the council of private initiators, which begs the question how much is done in the benefit of private interests over public.

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The obvious downside is that public spaces are no longer truly public but monitored by private enterprise. Especially maintenance and access are in the hands of a private group. As a result how a public space is used is determined by the private sector despite the fact this is public land. Democratic use of land is essentially sold in exchange for tidiness and safety.9

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Interestingly Madison Square Park Conservancy remains part of the City Parks Commission while the neighboring “urban living room” is run by the Flatiron 23rd Street Partnership, a private group. A delicate symbiotic relationship keeps both parties in check; however, these boundaries remain invisible to users.

need. How much of the services should be provided by private partnerships? Will this infringe on public rights? What is the role of city in this constellation? Can architects improve street-level urban spaces or are consolidated interest groups the designers of the future?

Urban public spaces are important markers for the quality of life in city communities. The success of these spaces is dependent on accessibility, protection from traffic, whether the space is supported by the users of neighboring buildings, and how well it is integrated into a community’s Case Study: Cities

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Footnotes

1. Richard Rogers Partnership, Lu Jia Zui Masterplan, accessed November 15, 2016, https://www.rsh-p.com/assets/ uploads/1950_ShanghaiMasterplan _JS_en.pdf. 2. Sylvia Fleis Fava, ed., Urbanism in World Perspective. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company, 1968, 115–25.

8. “Madison Square Pedestrian Project,” March 3, 2008, http://www.nyc.gov/html/ dot/downloads/pdf/madisonsqimprov.pdf. 9. Anna Minton, “Notopia: Who Is the City for?” The Architecture Review (June 6, 2016), http://www.architectural-review. com/archiv/campaigns/notopia.

3. Nicholas Mirzoeff, How to See the World. London: Pelikan Press, 2015, 165–66. 4. Katie Crepeau, “The Enduring Legacy of Playground Designer Aldo van Eyck,” Early Childhood Matters, no. 123 (November 2014): 10–13, here 12. 5. Alexander Fils, Das Centre Pompidou in Paris. Munich: Heinz Moos, 1980, 53. 6. Miriam Berman, Madison Square. Salt Lake City: Gibbs Smith, 2001, 14. 7. Christina Sterbenz, “New York City Used to Be a Terrifying Place,” Business Insider, July 12, 1993, www.businessinsider.com/ new-york-city-used-to-be-a-terrifyingplace-photos-2013-7?IR=T.

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Conclusion

Get the Basics Right

Conclusion

Understanding a process is part of one’s basic knowledge. Successful implementation of this knowledge does not necessarily result in a masterpiece. Like a sports team with the league’s best players, it does not guarantee a winning team. There are other factors that are necessary to bring a team to its highest potential. However, if the basics are all in place, the chances of success are greater. In a similar vein, if a building can be built cost-effectively, fulfills functional needs, uses appropriate materials, is well detailed, and can be rationally constructed, it will be a good building even though it does not stand to reason that it will be beautiful. To aspire to greatness, it is necessary that it also be good. 399

The emperor in his new clothes, walking in his virtual castle. “The representation of beauty is not the purpose of art. Beauty is a requisite quality just as the physical space objects take.”1 Gottfried Semper

Seductive Images

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Unlike the emperor and his new clothes, it is better not to be fooled by what is not there. The seduction of images is to believe that what is represented in two dimensions is equally beautiful in reality. Architecture is not static but changes with how people interact with it. To strive to be a work of art is a misrepresentation of architects’ work, since the goal of a building is something quite different. If a building is seen as a work of art, that should be a by-product, not the intention. It does not preclude that architecture can be a work of art, but to strive for it is a false definition of what architecture is. One must be weary of what is virtually alluring and realize that all representations are fragments of reality. To believe in the image is to fall under the same spell as the emperor.

Conclusion

Assume ♢♢♢ = House and ♢ is a necessary element of which three are needed to build a house. Design options would be ♢ + ♢ + ♢ = ♢♢♢ or ♢♢ + ♢ = ♢♢♢

The Evolution of Options: Despite the abstract nature of the diagram, it is possible to change the symbols into any aspect of a building that needs to be redesigned.

But what if ♢♢ = ☐ then ☐ + ♢ = ♢♢♢ △ = ♢ then △+△ △+☐ ☐ = ♢♢♢ and if △+△ △+△ △+△ △+△ △+△ △=⊞ and if △+△ then ⊞ = ♢♢♢ A House could be ⊞

Asking the Right Questions

To paraphrase Heisenberg, to ask the right questions is halfway to solving the problem. One job of an architect is to ask the right questions to find out what a client really needs, what he can afford, what is unrealistic, and whether there is an alternative. The formal reinterpretation is probable but not absolute; there is more than one answer. The options allow the client and the architect to narrow down the possibilities. The reworking of options defines both what is needed and how those needs can be catered to. An architect and the client may describe the same phenomena but from different perspectives, and as a consequence what appears completely contradictory may indeed be more similar than at first appearance. It requires a flexibility of thinking and a willingness to question initial assumptions.

Conclusion

401

As an architect you are expected to: 1 Be honest and act with integrity 2 Be competent 3 Promote your services honestly and responsibly 4 Manage your business competently 5 Consider the wider impact of your work 6 Carry out your work faithfully and conscientiously 7 Be trustworthy and look after your client’s money properly 8 Have appropriate insurance arrangements 9 Maintain the reputation of architects 10 Deal with disputes or complaints appropriately 11 Cooperate with regulatory requirements and investigations 12 Have respect for others2

Responsibility

402

From a flyer from the Architects Registration Board, UK, highlighting the 2017 Architects Code of Conduct and Practice

Interestingly, the Architects Registration Board in the UK equates quality with ethical behavior, which raises the question: What is the role of ethics in architecture? If architects are expected to behave in a morally correct manner, then it follows that their buildings should respond to the needs of not only the immediate clients but also to the communities they are part of. To take these ethical principles further, should buildings be honest? Is this the reason that, despite the use of new materials and new technologies, Neuschwanstein is not taken seriously?

Conclusion

Line of Demarcation

Planning stage

Building stage

Design changes stop

Expectations

Conclusion

In industry, once production starts, it cannot be stopped without loss of time and increase of costs. This is a fundamental principle of industrial manufacturing. Therefore the planning stages are crucial and decisions made in this stage need to be seen as close to absolute as possible. This is also the case in building. There might be unforeseeable obstacles that require changes, especially when working with existing buildings or within difficult site conditions. It is, however, unproductive to continue to design during construction. At this stage, for the client it is a matter of faith, and for the architect it is a matter of skill, that what was planned will indeed be what is built. 403

What Is innovation? When the Porsche Museum was completed in 2009, its architects proudly stated that “for five years, it would not have been possible to build,”3 since it needed the “most modern construction technology.”4 It needed 6,000 tons of steel. Why did it need so much material? The design required the building to defy gravity, cantilevering over the site by 60 meters. Essentially a bridge construction, it is pinned down by three “columns.” It is certainly not the impressive engineering feat it hails to be, since the quality of good engineering is to be as efficient as possible; it needed 12,000 different

types of steel structural elements.5 With a volume of 28,000 cubic meters and a completion cost of 100 million euros,6 it is terribly expensive, making it not very cost-effective. Is it energy efficient? Not really, when one considers the amount of material necessary. It does, however, look modern and futuristic, as Neuschwanstein looks medieval and heroic. The question remains: Where is the innovation?

Reality

Limited natural resources, growing population, increasing waste, food shortages, rising pollution: these are just part of the warnings issued by various global watch organizations concerning the future. Given that buildings are the biggest source of waste and pollution, it behooves both architects and clients to aim for sustainability. What does this actually mean? Modern lifestyles contradict the main tenets of viability with high consumerism and the need for new things, which are seen as necessary to create new experiences. This has manifested in buildings translated as new forms that do not always lead to better quality. A building is more than a stage set for lifestyles. Architecture is not about 404

fashion; it is not a matter of style or a look: It is a necessary aspect of our lives and influences our individual and communal future. By understanding the process of how decisions are made, it is possible to ask intelligent questions and to achieve a higher level of discussion. We can better answer or ask why is this design better? How can it be improved? Through this discourse, it will become more apparent which buildings are truly innovative and why some buildings are modern versions of Neuschwanstein.

Conclusion

Footnotes

1. Translation by Nicola Volland. Original text: “Die Darstellung des Schönen soll nie Zweck des Kunstwerks sein. Schönheit ist eine notwendige Eigenschaft des Kunstwerks wie die Ausdehnung der Körper.” Semper, Gottfried. Kleine Schriften. Berlin & Stuttgart: Verlag von B. Speman, 1884, 226. 2. Royal Institute of British Architects, Code of Conduct 2017, flyer. 3. “Fast so viel Stahl wie am Eiffelturm,” Art – Das Kunstmagazin, no. 2 (February 2009): 96–97, here, 96. 4. Ibid. 5. Ibid. 6. Ulrike Sengmüller, ed. Bauwerk_07 (Summer 2010), 3.

Conclusion

405

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Image Credits

All sketches by the author, if not otherwise indicated. Following sketches by the author are based on further sources: 9 right, 10 middle, 11 top left, 12 middle, 52, 104 right, 105 right, 128 right, 132 middle: Farnsworth House, Mies van der Rohe, © ProLitteris, Zurich, 2018 9 top right: Plastic Chair, Charles and Ray Eames 9 bottom left, 57: TC100, designer: Nick Roericht 27: plate 4, The Building Erected in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, 1851, Charles Cowper 28 left: Institute für Physiologische Chemie, Universität Tübingen, 1965, Peter von Seidlein 30 top right: Le Modulor, Le Corbusier; © FLC-ProLitteris, Zurich, 2018 45: original artwork from Dickinsons' Comprehensive Pictures of the Great Exhibition of 1851, 1852; left: detail from India stand at the Great Exhbition in Crystal Palace, top: detail from Chinese stand, right: detail from Moving Machinery; bottom: detail from Canada stand 46 left: detail from No. XV Refreshment Room in the Punch series, “Memorials of the Great Exhibition. – 1851” by cartoonist John Leech, 1851 48 top left: Diadokoro, Kitagawa Utamaro (1753–1806), print, original in Print Collection of New York Public Library; top right: Japanese Bath House, photograph, ca. 1880, Baron Raimund von Stillfried 51 left: North-south Cross Section of Sphere, The Popular Science Monthly 84, New York January 1914, 103 62: plate 27, The Building Erected in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, 1851, Charles Cowper, London, 1852

410

Image Credits

63: Palais de l'industrie, Alexis Barrault, Paris World Exhibition 1855 68: nineteenth-century photograph of Chatsworth Great Conservatory 69 top: Peter Berlyn and Charles Fowler, The Crystal Palace: Its Architectural History and Constructive Marvels, 1851, 42 ; bottom: ibid., 29 94: ibid., 61 106 left: Egyptian laborers working at the site of the Aswan High Dam, image in Life Magazine (April 1960) 108: Das Rathaus von Amsterdam, 1673, painting by Gerrit Adrianesz Berckheyde 120: Cheffin's Map of Great Western Railway, 1851 122 left: plate 14, The Building Erected in Hyde Park for the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, 1851, Charles Cowper, London, 1852 123: Snowshill Manor, England 124: The Crystal Palace: Its Architectural History and Constructive Marvels, Peter Berlyn and Charles Fowler, 1851, 44 132 left: Series 7 chairs, Arne Jacobson; bottom: Swan chairs, Arne Jacobson 139: Snakes and Ladders, Vikas Acaraya, accessed 17.04.15 166: Soldaten plündern einen Bauernhof im Dreißigjährigen Krieg, 1602, painting by Sebastiaan Franck Vrancx, collection Deutsches Historisches Museum 169: Ansicht Kloster Langheim von Südwesten, 1800, ink drawing from Alanus Bittermann, collection Staatsbibliothek Bamberg 170 left: Abbot Mösinger, 1744, engraving by Georg Friedrich Weigand, collection Staatsbibliothek Bamberg; right: portrait of Gottfried Krohne, found on the Supraporte in the green room of Residenzschloss Heidechsburg 171 left: Friedrich Carl von Schönborn (1674 –1746), ca. 1730, painting by Johann Gottfried Auerbach, Museum für Franken, Würzburg; right: Porträt des Balthasar Neumann, 1727, painting, Marcus Friedrich Image Credits

Kleinert, collection Museum für Franken, Würzburg 174, 175, 177, 178: Richard Teufel's 1957 analysis of Vierzehnheiligen floor plan 1742, collection Eckert, Museum für Franken, Würzburg 179: Wilhelm Lübke's 1890 plan of Vierzehnheiligen 195: Peter Müller, Hans-Heiko Müller, Burkhard Schmidt, and Bernd Glazinski (eds.), The German Health Care System: A Concise Overview, Konrad Obermann, Der Ratgeber Verlag: Hamburg, 2013, 23 229: sketch of areas in Stuttgart destroyed by allied bombing during W W II by Walter Kittel 1945 234: 1st floor plan from Horst Linde's reworked Landtag 238: photograph of Landtag, 1961 242 left: drawing “Einheit in den Einzelheiten – Details des neuen Landtagsbaues in Stuttgart,“ in detail 1961, 314 243: drawing in Bauwelt 1961 (38), 1067 244: ibid., 1068 255: plate 14 “Heutiges Verbreitungsgebiet der Schwarzwaldhäuser mit Abgrenzung der Haustypen,“ in Die Schwarzwaldhäuser von gestern für die Landwirtschaft von morgen, Ulrich Schnitzer and Franz Meckes, 1989, 17 258, 261: plate 142, Das alte, malerische Schwarzwald-Haus, R. Schelling, Freiburg im Breisgau: Freiburger Druck- und Verlags-Gesellschaft, 1915, 145 259, 260: plate 144, ibid., 146 269, 270: plate 158, “Lüftungssystem im Kinzigtäler Haus,” in Die Schwarzwaldhäuser von gestern für die Landwirtschaft von morgen, Ulrich Schnitzer and Franz Meckes 1989, 83 286: Facade view of Jena dome, under construction (ca. 1922), photograph, Edie T. (CC BY-SA 4.0) 290, 293 left, right: shells.princeton.edu 301: structural diagram from ARUP 302: computer diagram from Cox Architecture, Australia 411

336: Teatro Amazonas, Manaus, 1924, photograph by Paul Popper 340: Wer sein Liebchen hat gefunden, illustration, Badische Zeitung, Art section, original image credited to Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum 358: Architectural Review (June 2014), 55 379 left: photograph of children playing in bomb site in London 1947, Picture Post; right: postwar photo, provenance unknown 385: photograph A 7 422, 29 June 1914, Stéphane Passet, Archives de la Planète Albert Kahn 388: La Parade de Boulevard, 1760, painting by Gabriel de Saint-Aubin, collection National Gallery London 391: 23 Street and Broadway, late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century photograph, Met Life Archive 393: “Madison Square Pedestrian Project,” planning proposal, 3 March 2008, NYC DOT Image sources: 20: Wilson Bentley 40 top left: Tractatus de herbis, thirteenthcentury, The Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. MS. Ashmole 1431, fol. 27v-28; top right: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, Rogers Fund, 1966, 66.54.1 (CC0 1.0); bottom: Claude Monet; © Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Mr. and Mrs. Carroll S. Tyson, Jr., Collection, 1963-116-11. 41 top right: Manfred Heyde; bottom left: 0r14nd0 (GNU FDL); bottom right: Stephane D'Alu (GNU FDL) 56: unit a, freie architekten bda 59: Historical Images Archive / Alamy Stock Foto 60: ibid. 64: altered image; for credit see 65 65: IanDagnall Computing / Alamy Stock Foto 70: Crystal Palace Museum, London 76 top left, 77 top left, 77 top right, 76 top right, 77 bottom left, bottom right, 78–80: 412

unit a, freie architekten bda 84 left top: srckomkrit / Fotolia; left top middle: flas100 / Fotolia 84 left bottom: Jochen Binikowski / Fotolia; left bottom middle: stevanzz / Fotolia; right top middle: Nik_Merkulov / Fotolia; right top: pharut / Fotolia; right bottom middle: Thomas Renz / Fotolia; right bottom: Tomasz Zajda / Fotolia 87 top: McKay Savage (CC BY 2.0); middle: Reinhard Dietrich; bottom: Conrad Cichorius: “Die Reliefs der Trajanssäule”, Erster Tafelband: “Die Reliefs des Ersten Dakischen Krieges”, Tafeln 1– 57, Berlin: Verlag Georg Reimer, 1896 88: Africa Studio / Fotolia 89 top: meryll / Fotolia; bottom: Maren Winter / Fotolia 95: Thomas Tag / US Lighthouse Society 96: Gianni Careddu 97: Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., FSA A1999.35 251 109: unit a, freie architekten bda 116: Crates (GNU FDL) 125: Granger Historical Picture Archive / Alamy Stock Foto 134: Crates (GNU FDL) 135: Matthias Stom 140, 141: unit a, freie architekten bda 144, 145: unit a, freie architekten bda 146, 147: Peer-Oliver Brecht 148, 149 top left, top right, bottom left, bottom right: unit a, freie architekten bda 152: Peer-Oliver Brecht 153 top, bottom: unit a, freie architekten bda 154, 157: Peer-Oliver Brecht 161: Robert Mark 162: Alex Proimos (CC BY 2.0) 181: KNA-Bild / Katharina Ebel 182: Mattana (PD) 186, 187: Michael Wening 188, 191 right: Erwin Meier (CC BY-SA 3.0) 190 left: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Mrs. Edwin L. Pabst, in memory of her parents, Louis Lemp Image Credits

and Agnes Walsh Lemp, 1960, C.I.60.50a (CC0 1.0); right: bpk / Nationalgalerie, SMB / Klaus Göken 191 left: Val Thoermer / Alamy Stock Foto 192: Cajetan (CC BY-SA 3.0) 196: Peer-Oliver Brecht 197, 199: unit a, freie architekten bda 206 left, right, 207 left, right, 208: unit a, freie architekten bda 209 left, right: Joachim Käppeler 210: Frank Kleinbach 212: Peer-Oliver Brecht 217 left: Bundesarchiv, Plak 002-017-061; middle: Bundesarchiv, Plak 002-037-029; right: Bundesarchiv. Plak 002-039-020 222: aircrewremembered.com 230: Landesarchiv Baden-Württemberg 239: Julian Herzog (GNU FDL) 241: Filippo Poli 245: Christoph Meinschäfer / Trilux 249: Kunstmuseum Hasemann-Liebich, Gutach; Gemäldereproduktion Karl Schlessmann 251: dagino / Alamy Stock Foto 256: A Peasant's house, Black Forest, Baden, Germany, ca. 1890, photograph, www.loc.gov/item/2002713564/. 277 left: Giacomo Brogi; right: Marcus Bredt 283–285: Andrei Osipovich Karelin 289, 291: Südwestdeutsches Archiv für Architektur und Ingenieurbau 292: Hubert Berberich (CC BY 3.0) 295: Aki Käppeler 296: Lothar Betrams 297 left, right, 298 left, right, 299: unit a, freie architekten bda 300: Lothar Betrams 303: Christoph Friedrich 314 left, right, 315 left, right: Staatsarchiv Uri / Fotoarchiv Aschwanden 318: Christoph Jaag 319: ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Hs_1085-192930-1-2 (CC BY-SA 4.0) 322: Uorschla (CC BY-SA 3.0) 326: Joachim Käppeler 329 left: ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Image Credits

Hs_1085-1929-30-1-38 (CC BY-SA 4.0); right: ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Hs_1085-1929-30-1-22 (CC BY-SA 4.0) 330 left: ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Hs_1085-1929-30-1-37 (CC BY-SA 4.0); right: ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Hs_1085-1929-30-1-45C (CC BY-SA 4.0) 331: Mischol, Domenic, ETH-Bibliothek Zürich, Hs_1085-1929-30-1-25A (CC BY-SA 4.0) 333: Ezra Stoller / Esto 337: Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Harris Brisbane Dick Fund 1931, 31.72.5(11) (CC0 1.0) 343: Édouard Schuré 345: Jean-Michel Moreau 348: Hopkins Architects / Richard Davies 356: Die Photographische Sammlung / SK Stiftung Kultur – August Sander Archive, Cologne; © ProLitteris, Zurich, 2018 361: Hopkins Architects / Martin Charles / RIBA Collections 368 left: Map data © 2018 Google; right: Kartendaten: © OpenStreetMapMitwirkende, SRTM; Kartendarstellung: © OpenTopoMap (CC-BY-SA) 369 left: Kartendaten: © OpenStreetMapMitwirkende; Kartendarstellung: © schwarzplan.eu (CC-BY-SA); right: https://www.kusterdingen.de/de/ Rathaus/Bauen/Bebauungsplaene/ Bebauungsplaene-Kusterdingen (Ortskern Kusterdingen, Teilbereich 4) 372: Michal Osmenda (CC BY-SA 2.0) 375: Jean-Christophe Benoist (GNU FDL) 378: imageBROKER / Alamy Stock Foto / Florian Kopp 380 left, right, 381: Amsterdam City Archives

413

Thanks to Klara Koch, Jörg Seidel, Sonja Dillmann, and Daniela Kohler for research help; and to Nicola Volland for translation assistance. Special thanks to the Director of the Institute for Building Construction II, Stuttgart University, Dipl.-Ing. Peter Seger, for his support and advice during this project. In memory of Prof. Friedrich Wagner.

With the generous support of